The Legend of Mario: The Wind Waker
by FairyTalePrincess16
Summary: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Toad once again are sent to another adventure in Hyrule by the sorceress. However, the famed kingdom was nowhere to be seen. Together with a different Link who was trying to save his sister and a girl named Luka, the Mario cast try to find out what happened to the kingdom of Hyrule, not expecting to find many connections to their previous adventure.
1. A wish come true

**Well, after having a story canceled, maybe this new one might compensate for that! **

**Wind Waker was always my favorite Zelda game ever since I first saw it and played it. This game has a lot of charm that I don't know well how to describe it. Yes, I think this has even more charm than Ocarina of Time, and not to mention that it aged really well, especially when it comes to the graphics. It was this game that made me love Link's cartoony version, most commonly known as Toon Link, being my favorite version of Link ever. He was one of the first Links to actually develop a personality, which definitely is some good character development.**

**Because of my intense love for the game, I decided to include my Zelda OC to join Mario and his friends in this adventure!**

**I hope you enjoy! ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 1: A wish come true**

A few days have gone by in the Mushroom Kingdom since Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Toad's adventure in Hyrule where they helped Link, the Hero of Time, in his journey. But would that adventure really be their only one? Let's find out…

Somewhere in Toad Town, there was a rented house made out of cobblestone with a yellow roof. It was the only non-mushroom shaped house in the town and no one seems to mind it at all. Living inside this house was a teenage girl playing The Wind Waker HD on her Wii U, as she finished it just now and was watching the post-credits cutscene.

Who was this girl, you may ask? It was the Zelda fangirl, Luka.

"Ah, the fourth time I've finished this game!" she relaxed. "And that's only the remastered version! If I count the original version, that's actually the seventh time!"

Luka is a huge fan of the Zelda series, with her favorite game being The Wind Waker. She absolutely loves the charm of the game's characters, the music, gameplay, and specially the story, since it has some ties with Ocarina of Time, another Zelda game she likes. No doubt why she has all these Wind Waker-themed accessories on her (a Joy Pendant, a Wind Waker pin and a bracelet with the three pearls of the Goddesses).

After the cutscene ended, Luka turns off the Wii U and leaves the house.

"Hmm, now where should I go to relax?" she wondered, until the perfect place came to her: "I know! I should go to Cheep Cheep Beach!" she then makes her way there. "After all, the world of Wind Waker has a lot of beaches! ***sigh* **If only I could be able to enter it… It'll be amazing!"

Unknown to her, the mysterious sorceress was hiding nearby and heard what she said at the end.

"_You wish to see the Great Sea with your own eyes, huh? I can make it come true!_" the sorceress thought before proceeding to follow Luka without being detected.

Meanwhile, at Cheep Cheep Beach, the group of five mentioned at the beginning were all having a good time at the beach: Mario and Luigi were relaxing at beach chairs, Peach and Yoshi were playing volleyball, and Toad, wearing his Captain Toad outfit, was digging the sand in search for treasure.

Interesting enough, speaking of different outfits, Mario was wearing a short-sleeved version of his shirt as well as Luigi, while Peach was wearing the dress she wore in Super Mario Sunshine.

"You know, I just can't stop thinking of something…" Mario mused.

"What makes you say that, bro?" Luigi asked.

"I wonder if that sorceress will someday let more of our friends see Hyrule as well. I mean, Daisy can be sometimes busy running over Sarasaland, but that still doesn't stop her for someday joining us."

"Oh, don't sweat it. I'm sure she'll get to join us in an adventure in Hyrule someday."

"Still, I feel bad for her." Peach came in after she and Yoshi were done playing volleyball. "She really wants to go on an adventure, but she always has something to do back at her kingdom. And the fact that she never misses any of our kart racing and other sports events, or even our party games doesn't help."

"Hey, at least she got to know what we've been through." Yoshi stated.

"Yeah, and the sorceress was probably nearby, so she could fulfill her wish." Toad added.

"Excuse me…" suddenly, Luka came to them, making them almost jump. "Is this Cheep Cheep Beach?"

"Yes, it is." Peach replied politely. "Are you new here?"

"I am. So, who are you guys?" they told Luka their names. After that, it finally hit her: "Oh! You're the defenders of the Mushroom Kingdom! It's so nice to meet you in person!" she beamed in excitement.

"Um, you're welcome…" Luigi replied sheepishly. "And who are you?"

"I'm Luka, and I love anything Zelda-related! Wind Waker, especially!"

"…What?" Toad tilted his head, as so did the rest of the Mario cast.

"Oh, yeah. First, you do know what a gamer is, right?" everyone nodded to her. "Well, I happen to be a Zelda gamer. And Wind Waker is my favorite game of the franchise."

"Oh, okay, we get it now." Mario said. "So, does that mean you know which game was based off from the adventure we just had? In that adventure, we helped Link earn the title of Hero of Time."

"I do! That's Ocarina of Time!" Luka quickly responded. "Gosh, you guys are so lucky; I really wanted to be there too!"

"Right… Wait, what was that Wind Waker you just spoke of?" Yoshi asked.

"Glad you asked! I happen to have a replica of the scroll that tells the story from the beginning of the game!" Luka reaches into her pocket and pulls out a scroll, as the sorceress was watching while hiding behind the palm trees, eyes perked up when she heard Luka's last sentence.

"Wow! It looks very old!" Toad exclaimed. "Are you _sure _this is a replica?"

"Yep, it is! Do you want me to read it?"

"Yes, please!" Yoshi nodded.

"Good! Ahem…" Luka cleans her throat before proceeding to read:

_This is but one of the legends of which the people speak…_

_Long ago, there existed a kingdom where a golden power lay hidden. It was a prosperous land blessed with green forests, tall mountains, and peace._

By those descriptions, the Mario cast could easily tell that it was talking about the land of Hyrule.

_But one day a man of great evil found the golden power and took it for himself… With its strength at his command, he spread darkness across the kingdom._

Now it was very obvious that it was referring to Ganondorf. The Mario cast still had chills when hearing this name.

_But then, when all hope had died and the hour of doom seemed at hand… a young boy clothed in green appeared as if from nowhere. Wielding the blade of evil's bane, he sealed the dark one away and gave the land light. _

The Mario cast immediately smiled at that, knowing very well that it was now talking about Link.

_This boy, who traveled through time to save the land, was known as the Hero of Time. The boy's tale was passed down through generations until it became legend…_

What the Mario cast would hear next was something they would not expect at all.

_But then…a day came when a fell wind began to blow across the kingdom. The great evil that all thought had been forever sealed away by the hero… once again crept forth from the depths of the earth, eager to resume its dark designs._

…No. That didn't just happen. How did the seal on Ganondorf break?!

_The people believed that the Hero of Time would again come to save them… But the hero did not appear. Faced by an onslaught of evil, the people could do nothing but appeal to the gods. In their last hour, as doom drew nigh, they left their future in the hands of fate._

_What became of that kingdom…? None remain who know._

_The memory of the kingdom vanished, but its legend survived on the wind's breath. On a certain island, it became customary to garb boys in green when they came of age. Clothed in the green of fields, they aspired to find heroic blades and cast down evil. The elders wished only for the youths to know courage like the hero of legend…_

"…And that's the end of it." Luka finished reading, rolling up the scroll before putting it away. "Judging by your looks, you did not expect the story to end like this, right?"

"…I don't understand…" Peach whispered. "From what I remember, Zelda and the Sages sealed Ganondorf at the Sacred Realm… How in the world did it break?!"

"Fellow heroes…" the sorceress suddenly stepped into the scene, startling everyone.

"Ack! Don't sneak up on us!" Luigi exclaimed.

"Who are you?" Luka asked.

"Forgive me. I'm just a simple sorceress, the one who sent Mario and his friends to Hyrule to assist the Hero of Time." the sorceress replied.

"_Hold on… Her voice sounds somewhat familiar…_" Luka thought.

"Say, who are you supposed to be?"

"Oh! I'm Luka, a huge fan of the Zelda franchise."

"Nice to meet you." the sorceress giggled before getting serious, "Anyways, you all want to know why the seal on Ganondorf broke, is that correct?" everyone except for Luka, who already knew the reason, nodded. "First of all, do you remember the last words Ganondorf just said before he was sealed away?"

"Not really…" Toad frowned.

"He said, 'Someday…when this seal is broken… That is when I will exterminate your descendants! As long as the Triforce of Power is in my hand…'"

"So, are you telling us that the seal on him was supposed to be broken someday?!" Mario asked.

"I'm afraid so… I also don't really understand why either."

"Then what happened to Hyrule after that?" Yoshi asked worriedly. "Did Ganondorf actually manage to rule over it?!"

"No, he didn't." the sorceress assured. "However, let's just say that something unnatural happened to the kingdom after the gods made their decision that would decide its fate…"

"Really? What was it?" Peach asked.

"Well…" we couldn't see it, but the sorceress had a playful smirk on her face as the group was unaware that she was secretly creating a golden gate… right underneath their feet as they all immediately fell in. "I'll let you all discover for yourselves!" the sorceress chimed. "_And Luka, I hope you like what I'm giving for you!_"

* * *

_**Meanwhile…**_

Outset Island, a series of two islands connected by a wooden bridge. It is said that this was the island where the old tradition was held. The island was mostly peaceful, with a grand forest on one side, and a small village on the other side.

It was currently morning, as we can hear the sounds of waves on the water and see flocks of seagulls flying everywhere. On a certain house, we can see a young blonde-haired girl wearing a light-blue flower-patterned dress standing at the entrance as a few seagulls landed next to her.

"Big Brother!" the girl called out loud before running across the shore as no one responded. "BIG BROTHER!" she called out again, but was met with the same result. "_Oh, where could he possibly be?_" she thought as she brought out her telescope and looked through it. "_Hmm… I'm getting a feeling that he must be… up there!_" she ran over to the island's only lookout.

At the top of the lookout, there was a sleeping young boy at the age of 12. He had blond messy hair, thick black eyebrows, and large cat-shaped eyes. He wore a long-sleeved blue shirt with a white lobster pattern on the front and back and waves going around the waist area, gray bracers, orange pants, and gray slippers. He was, of course, Link.

"Big Brother!" the girl called out as she was at the stairs, looking at Link through her telescope.

"Mmm…?" Link mumbled, waking up and looking at the stairs, only to find no one there. Lazily, Link got up and stretched his arms, knowing already that he cannot sleep all day.

"I knew you'd be here!" the girl chirped as she was somehow behind Link.

"Wah!" Link jumped, turning around. "Aryll, don't startle me like that!"

"Hee hee hee! Looks like I had to be your alarm clock once again!" Aryll giggled. "See, this is my FAVORITE spot to gaze out at the sea. When I play with the gulls, I call it 'Aryll's Lookout.'"

"Yeah, I know that…" Link groaned woozily.

"So, do you remember what day it is today?"

"What day?"

"…You're still half asleep, aren't you?" Aryll sighed. "Did you forget?" Link said nothing. "Big Brother, it's your birthday!"

That sentence was enough for Link's sleep to go away as his eyes widened in surprise. How could he forget his own birthday?

"That's why Grandma has been waiting for you to come back to the house! She's been waiting for a while now… It's a good thing I came to find you!" Aryll exclaimed as Link was rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "You should probably go home and see what Grandma wants, don't you think?"

"Uh, sure." Link replied and went down the stairs. Once he made it to his house, he goes inside and calls out, "Hey, grandma?"

"Up here, dear." Link's Grandma replied from above. Link then climbs up the stairs to meet up with her as he noticed that she was holding a pile of folded up clothes. "I've been waiting for you, Link."

"Sorry I took so long." Link apologized before eyeing curiously at the pile of clothes, but when he looked closely at them, that's where it hit him: "***sigh* **Grandma, are you also following the island's tradition? I'm not into that kind of stuff, actually…" he spoke unamused.

"Oh, Link…" Grandma chuckled heartily. "Please, try these on." she hands the clothes to Link, who begrudgingly accepts them. "Time certainly flies… I can't believe you're already old enough to wear these clothes."

"Grandma, why is it that we also have to follow the tradition?"

"Don't look so disappointed, dear one! Just try them on."

"Alright…" Link sighed as his grandma turns around to give him privacy to change.

"My dear grandson… today is a day to celebrate! It is the day that you become the same age as the young hero spoken of in all the legends. You only have to wear them for one day, so don't look so down. Be proud, child!"

"Why should I? I see no point in doing all of this."

"…You don't seem to really care about that old legend too much, do you?" Grandma sweatdropped. "In the olden days, this was the day boys were finally considered to be men. They were taught the ways of the sword to prepare them for battle with their enemies. But we don't live in such an age any longer… Our ways are in the ways of peace. Nowadays, I suppose Orca is the only one on the island who still knows anything about swordplay." she then glances at a fancy-looking shield hung at the back wall. "Hanging the family shield on the wall as decoration is another tradition that has been carried down from those days. Does all this make sense to you?"

By that time, Link has finished changing into his new clothes. His outfit consisted of a green tunic with a light-green long-sleeved undershirt, a brown belt with a gold swirly buckle around his waist, white tights, brown boots, and finally a long and pointy green floppy cap was adorning his head.

"_They look a bit too hot to wear today…_" Link thought as he looked at his new clothes, still with an unhappy expression. "Okay, grandma, I'm done." Grandma then turns around.

"Well, isn't that nice, Link? They suit you perfectly! A perfect fit!" she smiled.

"_I guess…_" Link shrugged mentally as his expression changes to a neutral one.

"Alright, tonight I'm going to invite the whole town over for your birthday party, so I'd better start getting ready, shouldn't I? Your grandma is going to make your favorite soup for you tonight! Mmmm! I just know you're looking forward to it!"

Link's eyes perked up the moment his grandma talked about his favorite soup; it was the best thing he ever ate in life! That seemed to lighten him up at least.

"Now, go get your sister. She must be waiting for you."

"Okay. Thanks, grandma." Link said and left his house.

Outside, he made his way back to the top of the lookout, where he saw Aryll playing with the seagulls.

"Sis, I'm back." Link smiled as Aryll turns around, at which it caused the seagulls to fly away.

"Ah! 'Hoy, Big Brother!" Aryll replied. "Did Grandma make that outfit for you?"

"She did."

"But wow… You look like you'd be too hot in those clothes…" Aryll frowned.

"Don't even tell me…" Link sweatdropped.

"I guess they're pretty neat, though! So, anyway, Link… Can you close your eyes and hold out your hand? Just for a second!"

Link nodded and did as he was told, while Aryll gently places her telescope on his hand.

"Okay! You can open your eyes now!" Aryll said. Link opens his eyes… and was surprised to see his sister's telescope on his hand. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

"Aryll… That's your telescope, isn't it?" Link asked.

"Yep!" Aryll chirped. "So? Well?! Do you like it? I'm letting you borrow this special gift just because you're my big brother! Aren't you lucky?! Hee hee hee!"

"You didn't have to…" Link chuckled.

"Ooh, why don't you try it out! Right now! Try looking over at our house from here!"

With that, Link looks through the telescope and zooms in to his house. But then, something nearby caught his attention: he saw a Rito postman in front of a mailbox, possibly about to make a deliver… until he looked at the sky alarmed and started flailing his wings crazily.

"_The postman looks kinda weird… What's he doing?_" Link thought. It was at this moment that Aryll looked up at the sky and saw something that made her scream and snap Link out of his thoughts:

"AAAAAHH! LINK! THE SKY! LOOK UP IN THE SKY!"

Quickly listening to his sister, Link shifted his gaze at the sky and nearly gasped at what he saw.

There was a giant bird, who appears to be carrying something in its talons. No, not something – someone! It was a person! Then, two cannonballs zoomed past the bird, so Link looked to the source of them and saw that they came from… a pirate ship.

There were a few pirates on board, as more cannonballs were launched from a catapult at the ship's front. Unfortunately, all of the shots were missing the bird as it flies off towards the island. That is, until one cannonball actually manages to hit the bird square on the jaw, causing it to lose its grip on the person it was carrying. Link then watched the person, who appears to be a young girl around his age, fall straight down into the trees at the forest on the other side of the island.

"Link, this is so terrible! That girl fell into the forest! She needs help!" Aryll panicked. "…But it's too dangerous for you to go in there without something you can use to defend yourself with!"

Link had heard little about the forest, but he knew that it was filled with vegetation, mostly grass and trees. But if what Aryll was saying that it was dangerous, especially when a huge bird just came to this island and that it could come back at any second, he was sure that by going there without a weapon of sorts, he would be at mercy.

Without hesitation, Link assured Aryll that he would take care of this and left the lookout again, but this time, he went directly to Orca's house, since he heard from Grandma that Orca was the only one currently on this island that knows swordplay.

* * *

_**Somewhere else…**_

"AAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Toad and Luka screamed as they came out of the golden gate that showed up on the sky above a certain dark and gloomy fortress island and were falling towards it.

However, this place was heavily under guard, filled with searchlights all over the place. Because of that, the group landed on the floor where most of the searchlights were, and since they all had a hard landing and thus didn't recover quickly… one of the searchlights found them as all the other ones focused on them as well, and then the sound of an alarm came before everything went black.

A few hours later, when the group came around, they weren't outside anymore; instead, they were inside a prison cell, which had a table with some chairs, a few barrels, and an empty bookshelf with a pot on top.

"Owch…" Yoshi groaned. "That was harsh…"

"At least my backpack softened my landing…" Toad said.

"I swear… something is wrong with that sorceress." Mario remarked. "First she acts serious, but then later she acts all playful! I don't get this at all!"

"Uh, guys… I don't mean to change the subject, but… are we in JAIL?!" Luigi exclaimed.

"Oh my goodness… We are!" Peach gasped as everyone looked around.

"How in the world did we end in here?" Toad asked. "And also, where are we supposed to be?"

"No way…" Luka silently gasped, in a way that she seemed to recognize her surroundings. "This place… This… is…"

"Luka, you okay?" Yoshi asked as everyone else glanced at Luka.

"OH. MY. GOD!" she suddenly yelled. "I can't believe it! We're in the Forsaken Fortress!"

"Forsaken Fortress?" the Mario cast asked in unison.

"Guys, don't you know what this means?! We're in the world of The Wind Waker! This is the best thing EVER!"

"Wait, seriously?!" Mario's eyes widened. "We're in the world of your favorite game?"

"We are! Oh, I've always wanted to see this world with my own eyes!" Luka fangirled.

"Right…" Luigi sweatdroped. "Well, that's good for you, but… how do we get out of here?"

"Do not worry, everyone!" Luka winked. "I've played this game a lot, so I know exactly what to do!" she then climbs the table before leaping off to the top of the bookshelf, where she pushed the lonely pot to reveal a small passage. "Ta-dah!"

"Oh! There was a secret passage hidden behind that pot!" Peach exclaimed.

"Looks like we'll have to leave it to Luka to guide us out." Mario chuckled.

They then crawled into the passage, taking all of them out of the cell as they began to venture around the Forsaken Fortress with Luka as the guide.

* * *

_**Back with Link…**_

After obtaining a sword, the Hero's Sword, and practicing some swordplay with Orca, Link was ready to venture out to the island's forest, the Forest of Fairies, where the girl who was captured by the huge bird fell in. First, he had to slice some trees blocking the path leading to the top of the island, and then cross a wooden bridge with two missing planks in the middle where he had to jump over to finally reach his destination.

Most of the Forest of Fairies consisted of grass, trees and dirt, as well as some fallen tree logs that could help Link navigate this place further. Immediately upon entering the forest, Link spotted the girl, who was unconscious and hanged on a tree branch by her blue jacket. She wasn't that far away, so at least he wouldn't have to do a lot of walking.

Just then, when Link reached the area of the forest where the girl was, he heard a strange sound as he looked up at the sky to see two Kargorocs dropping two Bokoblins that landed right in front of him, so he stood ready to fight them.

The two Bokoblins lunged towards Link to attempt to kick him, but he rolled out of the way and slashed them away. He did the same strategy again to defeat the two beasts.

Shortly after the two Bokoblins were defeated, the girl finally woke up… and freaked out immediately since she noticed that she was far away from the ground. She begins to panic, wobbling so much that it eventually made the tree branch snap, and she fell to the ground.

"OOOWWWWCH!" she cried.

Seeing what happened to the girl, Link quickly runs up to her to see if she wasn't hurt. The girl had tan skin, dazzling blue eyes, and blond hair tied up in a bun. She was wearing what appears to be a pirate outfit: a lavender shirt, a blue jacket, a red scarf around her neck, white pants, and brown sandals. A cutlass and a pistol were attached to her hip and she had white tapes on her wrists.

"Hey, are you okay?" Link asked as the girl glances at him, but she was looking more at his outfit than his face.

"Wow. What's with that getup?" she asked.

"Long story…" Link sweatdropped. "It's part of my twelfth birthday."

"Well, whatever. And to answer your question, I'm perfectly fine. So, where am I…?"

"This is Outset Island. I'm Link, by the way."

"Hm, nice to meet you, I guess. Now how did I… Oh, that's right! That giant bird came and…"

"Miss! MISS TETRA!" suddenly, a voice yelled as the pair looked back at the forest's entrance to see a man running up towards them and stopping in front of the girl, apparently named Tetra. "Oh! Oh, thank… Thank goodness! You're safe!" he panted. "When I saw you get dropped on this summit, I thought for sure you'd…"

"Summit?" Tetra asked, interrupting the man. "So that bird dropped me on the top of a mountain? Well, wasn't that nice of it!" she then turns to leave. "Well, don't just stand there! LET'S GO! Time to repay our debt to that bird in full!"

"But, Miss… What about this boy?" the man asked, directing to Link.

"Don't worry about him. Come on!"

The man follows Tetra, leaving Link just standing there. How could Tetra dismiss him like this? After all, she owes him one for saving her. Hold on, maybe she doesn't know that? That could be a possibility since Link didn't get a chance to interfere in the conversation.

Well, he had to leave anyways so he also exited the forest.

When the trio was back outside, a voice immediately caught their attention:

"'Hoy! Big Brother!" it was Aryll, who was standing at the other side of the bridge waving happily at her brother.

"Aryll!" Link beamed as Aryll starts to make her way to the other side.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the same bird from before comes in swooping down towards the bridge, going directly for Aryll as Link noticed that and his eyes widened in shock.

"ARYLL! LOOK OUT!" he yelled.

Too late: the bird eventually grabs Aryll with its talons, flying away into the distance with her.

"BROTHER!" Aryll cried out.

Link couldn't believe it; he had failed to save his sister hadn't he seen the bird coming down earlier. His Big Brother instinct kicked in, and he involuntarily runs to the direction the bird was heading, sword in hand. Only that he forgot that he was standing on top of a cliff and couldn't fly… so he ends up plunging down, and he would've had fallen into the water below if it wasn't for Tetra grabbing his free hand nigh immediately.

"Uhhn! Stupid kid! Get ahold of yourself!" Tetra growled as Link was struggling from her grasp. "She's gone. There's nothing you can do."

Knowing that she was right, even though he wished she wasn't, all Link could do was stare at the bird carrying his sister away until they were gone.

"Sis… I'm so sorry…" he whispered sorrowfully.

What a horrible birthday this turned out to be…

**To be continued…**

* * *

**Oh ho, yes! Starting off strong! **

**Next time, the Forsaken Fortress! Until then! Please review!**


	2. The Forsaken Fortress

**Here's the next chapter!**

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 2: The Forsaken Fortress**

"What?! You want to come with us on our ship?"

"Yes." Link nodded firmly. But Tetra didn't take this too seriously:

"Do you understand what you're asking? We're pirates! You know… PIRATES! The terror of the seas! What do we get out of bringing some helpless little kid along with us? I'll tell you what we get…a headache."

"Hey! I'm not helpless!" Link shot back.

"Look, I know how you must feel, with your sister having been kidnapped and all… But that doesn't really have anything to do with us, now does it?"

"And how do you figure that…?" suddenly, a voice said as everyone turned to see the Rito postman at their side.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa there! Just who are you?! Where do you get off butting in on someone else's conversation?!" the man from previously, named Gonzo, questioned.

"Please! All I mean to say is that if you big, bad pirates hadn't come to this quiet little island… That poor girl wouldn't have been snatched away by that bird."

"And just what do you mean by that?" Tetra asked.

"Just be quiet for a moment, and I'll tell you! Now, as my work entails delivering letters, I spend much of my time traveling amongst the many different islands. As a result, I hear many things… Haven't any of you heard that young girls have been getting kidnapped lately from all regions of the Great Sea?"

"Wait, what?!"

"No matter. Whether you've heard it or not, that seems to be the case. Young girls with long ears like yours have been getting kidnapped, never to be seen again. And unless my eyes fail me, the young girl who was just kidnapped from this island also has long ears, does she not? Much like YOU do, Miss Fearsome Pirate. My point is that the bird mistook that poor girl for you, and that's why it grabbed her!"

Upon hearing this, Tetra could tell that he might've been right. The bird was too far away to properly tell the difference between her and Link's sister, further proving this theory. But she, as well as Link, still didn't understand about those kidnappings; why only girls with long ears? Does the bird hate seeing girls with long ears or something?

"And correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it was young Link here who saved you from the monsters in the forest." the postman continued, and then turned to Link. "Wasn't it true?"

"It was." Link nodded.

"…Is this true?" Tetra asked in astonishment.

"Oh! And while I'm at it…" the postman interfered. "I may as well tell you that the bird that kidnapped both you and Link's sister has made its foul nest to the north, on the heights of the Forsaken Fortress."

"The Forsaken Fortress?!" Gonzo and the small pirate, Niko, exclaimed in unison.

"Isn't that the place where…" Tetra breathed.

"So, what are you going to do?" the postman asked. "Under the circumstances, I don't think it would be unreasonable for you to give Link a little help, now, would it?"

"Hmph… I don't need you to tell me that!" Tetra scoffed, then turned to Link. "But even if I were to consider it… Lately, I've heard nothing but evil rumors about this Forsaken Fortress… You can't possibly mean to go there with nothing but that cheap little sword! That's not brave! It's stupid! I mean, come on! Even a simple little island like this has to have something you could use as a shield. You know, something to protect yourself with? Anything?"

Just by hearing the word 'shield', Link knew exactly the place where to get one.

"Tell you what. If you come back with something like that, we'll let you stow away on our ship." Tetra said. "Oh, and one more thing: once we leave, you won't be coming back here for a while, so you'd better go say good-bye to your family while you have the chance. Because I don't want you getting all weepy eyed and homesick on me!"

After Link was relieved that Tetra was done rambling, he wasted no time in heading to his house to get the shield that was previously hung on the wall at the top floor.

* * *

However, once he got there, he found no sight of the shield.

"_Huh? Where'd go? I could've sworn it was here…_" Link thought puzzled.

"Link…" Grandma's voice from the bottom floor snapped him out of his thoughts as he went back down, seeing her with her back turned and holding something on her hands.

"Grandma…?" Link whispered sadly. How is he going to tell her that Aryll has been kidnapped?

"Is this what you're looking for?" Grandma asked before she slowly turns around, and Link saw that her face was also that of sorrow. Maybe she already have heard of Aryll's kidnapping…

"Grandma, I…" he was cut off when Grandma forced a small smile while offering him the shield.

"…Take it with you."

Still saddened, Link then takes the shield, the Hero's Shield, and straps it to his back, not wanting to look at his grandma. That is, until he heard quiet sobs coming from her as he turned around and saw her crying.

"I guess it is true… Aryll really has been kidnapped… Hasn't she?" Grandma wept.

"Yes…" Link replied, embracing her in a hug.

"What kind of monster could take such a sweet, young child?"

"***sniff* **I'm so sorry, grandma…" Link sobbed. "But I have to go out and save her… I might not come back here for a long while…"

"Oh, my dear grandson…"

"…I promise I'll come back here with Aryll. Then… everything will be fine again." Link broke from the hug. "Goodbye, grandma…"

"Goodbye, Link… ***sniff* **Take care…"

Link made his way to the door, and, looking at his grandma one last time, he went out.

* * *

"Wow, that's a decrepit old shield… Are you sure you can still use that thing? Are you going to get splinters and cry?" Tetra questioned, only for Link to shoot a serious glare at her.

"I went all this way to get a shield, and you're still doubtful about me?" he retorted.

"Alright, fine, whatever… If you're ready, then let's go!"

We cut to a scene showing just the clear blue skies and the shining sun… and then comes Senza holding a beater, using it to hit a gong at the front of the pirate ship. The sails unfolded, Gonzo spins the helm, and the ship slowly began to sail away from the island. Link stood on the ship's back along with Tetra, as he caught glimpse of all the residents of the island waving him good-bye and wishing him luck:

"Good luck, Link!"

"Good luck finding Aryll!"

"Take care of yourself!"

Link sadly waves back at them as Tetra just watches unamused. Just then, Link saw something at the side that caught his eye as he sprints to the back's end, causing his eyes to grow wide: he saw his grandma standing at the house's wraparound porch. Both stood in their positions for a moment, and then Link waves back at her one last time.

"Ugh… How much longer is this going to go on, do you think? Do you have an estimate?" Tetra huffed impatiently. Link looked back at her with a look of disbelief as he just saw her sitting there with her arms crossed while flashing him a smirk. "Are you sure you shouldn't just quit right now? Seriously, think about it." she then leans back and puts her hands behind her head, closing one eye. "I can tell you're just going to get more sentimental from here on out."

"Sentimental?" Link asked, furrowing his eyebrows.

"There's still time, you know… Are you sure we shouldn't just turn around and take you back to your island?"

Link looked back at his island and watched it slowly disappear into the distance. No. He was not going to turn back now. He has to save his sister!

"No, I've already made my mind. I'm going to save my sister no matter what." he spoke firmly to Tetra, who had a small look of surprise on her face. "_After all, I made a promise to my grandma…_" he thought.

* * *

_**Meanwhile, back with the group at the Forsaken Fortress…**_

"And that's the last searchlight!" Luka exclaimed as they just defeated a Bokoblin operating the searchlight as it was now directing upwards.

"You sure do know a lot about this place." Mario remarked. "Especially when you guided us to the chests holding the map and the compass and redirected all of the searchlights!"

"At least these should make things easier for us and Link once he arrives here." Yoshi said.

"Is Link actually going to get here?" Toad asked Luka.

"Trust me, he will soon enough." Luka assured. "If I were to guess, depending on how much time we spent here at the Forsaken Fortress, he should already be on his way here."

"You told us that this whole world is surrounded by ocean, right? Then that means he can only arrive here through a boat or a ship." Peach stated.

"Oh, there will be a ship coming! But it will be one that you might not be expecting…"

"Oh boy… That again…" Luigi sweatdropped.

"So, in order for us to get a good look at it, I brought these!" she pulled out some telescopes and handed each one to them. "Now, just stay close to me, and…" she snaps her fingers… and she and the others were surrounded in a puff of smoke that teleported them to another portion of the outside of the fortress. More specifically, the portion where there was a lonely Moblin on patrol, but the group of course were far away from it.

"…What the _heck_?!" Luigi broke out the stunned silence he and the Mario cast were in. "Did you just…teleport us to another spot?!"

"Surprise!" Luka giggled. "Thanks to my supernatural powers of fire and magma manipulation, I can also create smoke for teleportation!"

"Wait, you can manipulate fire AND _magma_?!" Toad flinched. "Then… That means you have pyrokinesis _and_ geo-thermokinesis!"

"Yep!" Luka replied. "My hair is my source of power. When my powers reach their peak, I expel fire from my body and my hair acts like a raging volcano!" the Mario cast gulped at that. "But don't worry; my powers only activate whenever I get angry."

"_Yikes… Remind me to never piss her off…_" the Mario cast thought.

"Oh, look! Here it comes!" Luka looked at the distance and saw the pirate ship stopping a few feet away from the fortress. "I was right after all!"

"Is that… a pirate ship?" Yoshi asked. "And Link is on it?"

"Indeed! Now, bring out your telescopes and see it for yourselves!"

After they all exchanged glances and shrugs, the Mario cast followed Luka and took out their telescopes. By looking through them, they all zoomed in on the pirate ship, seeing Link meeting up with Tetra, who was at the crow's nest.

"What were you doing with Niko?" Tetra asked with a deadpan look.

"Well, he told me to do some platforming training." Link replied. "And then he gave me this bag." he was referring to the Spoils Bag.

"Don't tell me you were playing some stupid game for treasure…were you?"

"Hey, you were the one who told me to head down there!" Link retorted.

"…Well, whatever! There's something you need to see! Have a look over there… That's the cursed island known as the Forsaken Fortress."

As Tetra shoots an aside glance, Link follows her eyes, looking at the ominous Forsaken Fortress for the first time. The shape of it was very reminiscent of a dead tree, with some anchors hanged by ropes on its 'branches'. On the far left of the fortress' top, there stood the nest of the giant bird, and there was the half of a ship attached next to it. Around the fortress, even though the Mario cast and Luka were able to redirect the searchlights at the interior, there were still many searchlights on the outside.

We change to the perspective of the Mario cast and Luka, who despite not being able to hear what Link and Tetra were talking about since they're miles away from them, they could still at least see them. But when the Mario cast took a good look at Link, they could see that he looked very different than before.

"Uh, is that really Link?" Yoshi asked. "Because he looks… very different."

"Oh, you're thinking that he's the same one you encountered previously, right?" Luka guessed as they nodded in response. "Well, you're wrong. This Link is a complete different person from the Hero of Time. He does share traits with him, at least."

"What do you mean?" Peach asked.

"You see, this will be a bit complicated for you at first but, not all Links are the same person. In fact, there's multiple Links from different periods of time. Same goes for Princess Zelda. It is said that if any sort of evil rises again in Hyrule, a different incarnation of courage and wisdom shall appear to put a stop to it."

"So you're saying that he really is Link, only that he's a different person?" Toad summed up.

"Exactly. So don't act like you've seen him before, okay? Act like he's a totally new person, you guys."

"Okay." Mario nodded. We then shift back to Link and Tetra's perspective:

"There are all sorts of strange rumors about this place. What I do know is that long ago, it used to be the hideout of a no-good group of pirates we used to compete with…" Tetra said. "But they were just small time. Now, the place looks like it's pretty dangerous." then, she saw something that caught her attention, "Ah! I knew it! Look! Over there! By that window!"

Link looked to where Tetra was pointing, and he could see flocks of seagulls grouped together, flying around a lit window.

"Have you ever seen so many seagulls flock like that before?" Tetra asked. "…I'll bet you anything that's the place where they've got your sister locked up!" then she inspected the security. "…But it looks like the whole place is under really tight guard. Not so much on the inside, strangely enough, but still, this won't work… We'd be spotted before we got anywhere near landing there."

"Then how can we get there?" Link asked.

"Hmmm… Good question…" Tetra went in deep thought. "What do we do now?"

She thought for a second, and then she had an idea as she glances at Link with a… rather suspicious smirk and wink. What was she planning?

For some bizarre reason, Link didn't feel himself being put into a barrel, Tetra placing something into his pocket, and the pirates carrying him and placing him on top of a catapult. How he did not feel or react to any of those actions is beyond me.

After that, Link looks down, first noticing that he was in a barrel:

"Oh. I'm in a barrel. Now what?" he deadpanned… but when he looked down even further and saw that he was on a catapult, that's where he freaked out: "Wait… WHY AM I ON A CATAPULT?! LET ME OUT RIGHT NOW!" he yelled in panic as he starts rocketing the barrel around.

"Look, don't struggle. If you really want to get into a dangerous place like that, this is the only way to do it. Trust me." Tetra stated. "We pirates do this all the time. Don't worry about it! It'll be a piece of cake!" she looks over at Gonzo. "Is everybody ready!?" Gonzo saluted, which technically meant 'yes'. "Never you fear, kid. We're pros. We're going to launch you good!" Tetra exclaimed as the pirates got into position.

"_Why do I have a feeling that this is not going to end well…_" Link thought.

"Oh ho ho ho! Here comes my favorite part~!" Luka exclaimed excitedly.

Tetra then starts the countdown… while Link makes very hilarious-looking facial expressions during it:

"3"

Link makes an expression that was a mixture of shock and worry.

"2"

Link does an expression that just screams, "Welp, I'm screwed."

"1"

Link shuts his eyes, furrows his eyebrows and grits his teeth, ready for the worst.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Link screamed as the catapult lifts up, flinging him towards the fortress. The pirates watched Link flying off, with Gonzo casually waving good-bye at him.

Meanwhile, Luka was bursting out laughing shortly after the countdown was done and Link was launched away.

"***laughing* **Dihid you just s-see his fhacihahal expressions ahat the countdhown!? Ahahahahahaha!" she spluttered.

"…How can this be funny to you?" Mario asked, glancing at Luka in unbelief.

"Oh, there he comes…" Yoshi informed, looking through his telescope.

"…aaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAHHH!" Link was still screaming like crazy during the flight as the group saw him flying… straight to the fortress' wall.

"Uh oh…" Luigi trailed as everyone except for Luka began to grimace as Link was nearing the wall.

***SPLAT!***

The hero lands faceplanted into the wall, causing the barrel to break apart in the process… and also for his sword to fly out of its sheet.

"Ooh, that's got to hurt…" Peach winced.

"Aaand there goes his sword…" Toad watched Link's sword fall to the platform that was right above them.

Afterwards, Link slid down from the wall, eventually plunging into the water below.

"Well, at least he landed into the water, right?" Luka smiled.

"Yeah, but he's all the way down now." Mario pointed out as they watched Link surfacing and climbing up at the docks, panting heavily.

"No worries! We can fetch him in a second with my powers of teleportation!" Luka exclaimed before snapping her fingers to take everyone back to the lower level.

Upon shaking and wringing off the water in his clothes, Link took a single step forward, where he jumped in startle when he suddenly heard Tetra's voice echoing from somewhere:

"_Your sword landed all the way up there? Shoot! I'm sorry! I apologize! I guess my aim was off by a little bit. Heh heh… The look on your face… Priceless!"_

"_What in the world…?_" Link thought puzzled. "_…Is it coming from my pocket?_" he reached out into his pocket and pulled out a necklace with a shining blue stone as the pendant. To his surprise, Tetra's voice was coming from the stone!

"_Heh heh… I slipped this stone into your pocket just before we fired you over there. It's no ordinary stone, either."_

"Yeah, I can see that…" Link sassed.

"_I don't appreciate your sass. Anyway, I can see what you're doing through this stone, and obviously you can hear me through it. It's called the Pirate's Charm. But hey, listen carefully! I need this back after you save your sister, so don't go losing it, you understand?! So use it wisely!"_

"Alright…" Link puts the stone away. "Now to find my sister… _and _my sword."

With that, he went up the stairs, still wondering why the searchlights on the inside portion of the island were pointing up at the sky. Then, all of a sudden, a puff of smoke appeared right in front of him, making him jump in startle again:

"Wah! What the-?!"

"Oh, whoops! I didn't mean to startle you!" Luka apologized.

"It's alright… Soo, who are you people? Were you taken to this fortress too?"

"Um, well…" Peach trailed. "We're actually not from here. As for us, I'll introduce myself first. I'm Princess Peach."

"I'm Mario."

"Luigi."

"Yoshi!"

"Toad."

"And Luka!"

"Huh, nice names, I guess. As for me, I'm Link." Link replied. "Hold on! What do you mean that you're not from here?"

"You could say that we come from an entirely different world. A world called the Mushroom Kingdom." Yoshi said. "And Peach is its ruler." he directed to Peach, who nodded in response.

"_That's a weird name for a kingdom… But I guess that explains why this little guy is shaped like a mushroom. Not sure on the dinosaur, though._" Link thought. "Uh huh… Okay, I gotcha. So how did you get here?"

"A sorceress did it." Toad answered.

"…That's it?"

"Yup."

"Well, alright…" Link shrugged.

Just then, Link's pocket began rumbling again as he pulled out the Pirate's Charm.

"_Okay, what's taking you so long to move?!"_ Tetra exclaimed impatiently, until she saw the new group. _"Oh, hey… Looks like you've got yourself some company! Where did you find them?"_

"I didn't actually find them, they just… poofed out of nowhere." Link answered.

"_Riiight… Anyway, you should be glad that you're not all alone here. Now, don't you want to save your sister? So get moving!" _Tetra ends the call.

"Sweet Hylia, she's just so impatient…" Link muttered.

"Who was it?" Luigi asked.

"Oh, that was Tetra. She's a pirate captain and gave me this stone called the Pirate's Charm that allows her to communicate with me."

"Okay. Wait a second, did she just told you to save your sister?!"

"Yeah. The main reason why I came here is because my little sister was kidnapped by a huge bird and taken to this fortress."

"Oh, that's horrible!" Peach gasped as the rest of the Mario cast had the same reaction.

"***sigh* **Link, I feel your pain…" Mario sighed.

"You… do?" Link awed.

"You see, I happen to be Luigi's older brother. During some of our adventures in our world, Luigi and I were separated several times. So we both know how it feels to have your sibling away from you, especially if you're the older brother like me."

"I see…" Link frowned. "You two must've been through a lot, right?"

"Yep. But we got used to it. I'm sure the same will apply to you as well, Link."

"I hope so."

"Alright!" Luka interjected with a hand clap. "Now that we're acquainted, how about we move on?"

"Sure, but it's a long way up there…" Link stated, looking up.

"We're not going to climb all that again, are we?" Toad asked, not really wanting to go to the top on foot again.

"Hello? I can just teleport us up there! Did you forget?" Luka winked, preparing her finger snap.

"Wait, what did you just sa-?! ***POOF!***" Link was cut off when Luka snapped her fingers, causing everyone to disappear in a puff of smoke before they all reappeared at the spot where Luka and the Mario cast were observing the pirate ship.

"Nothing like fast travel!" Luka exclaimed.

"W-What… What just happened?!" Link blinked.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you that I, as well as everyone else here, have distinct powers that can help us in any sort of situations!"

"You guys have powers?! Now THAT'S something I don't see every day!"

"I also have high knowledge about the Zelda franchise, so I know exactly everything that's going to happen during this adventure, all the places we'll be going to, all the people and enemies we'll encounter, and even directions!"

"…Okaaaay. I don't buy that." Link dismissed, causing Luka to roll her eyes. "Whatever. Let's just go."

They group moved on, sidling against some walls, which were not too much of a problem since all the searchlights were redirected. Because of that, Link guessed if that was the new gang's doing before he arrived here.

"_So I think they were doing some things in this fortress, after all… I give props to them for that, at least._" he thought.

Going up on the path, the group eventually reached a small arena, where the first thing that caught their attention a few feet away was Link's sword on the ground.

"Hey, isn't that…?" Yoshi awed as Link's eyes gleamed with joy.

"YES! My sword!" he cheered, jumping up and down in celebration.

"Don't celebrate just yet…" Luka warned… and immediately after she said that, spikes suddenly rose up from behind them.

"Uh oh." Link stops celebrating, as he looked back at the spikes alarmed.

At the same time, a sword and shield wielding Bokoblin nearby saw them and screeched, charging towards them.

"Move!" Mario called out as everyone moved out of the way to avoid the Bokoblin.

"Link! Get your sword!" Peach ushered.

"Right!" Link nodded.

The Bokoblin tried to prevent Link from retrieving his sword by doing a jump attack at him, but he rolled away, grabbing his sword during the roll.

"Time for payback!" Link declared as he does a jump slash at the Bokoblin, landing the first hit at it. Link swings his sword at it again, but this time, it blocked with its shield.

"Too bad your protection is made out of wood!" Luka teased before she shot a fireball at the shield, burning it to ashes, much to the Bokoblin's shock. "Finish it off, Link!"

After a nod, Link does one final slash at the Bokoblin, killing it. The spikes retracted back into the ground and the door was now unlocked.

"Great job, Link!" Peach praised.

"Oh, it was nothing…" Link replied in embarrassment. "But wow, that was nice use of your powers there!" he addressed Luka.

"Thank you!" Luka thanked.

"So I assume that you have fire powers, right?"

"Yes. That, and the ability to manipulate magma and lava." she replied as she opens up the doors and goes inside.

"…I'm sorry, WHAT?!" Link yelled in shock upon hearing Luka's last sentence.

"Just don't piss her off and you'll be fine." Yoshi told him before he and the others followed Luka inside.

"_Dear Hylia, what other highly dangerous supernatural powers I'm going to witness from these guys?!_" Link thought before heading in as well.

The room they were now in was round and tall, with a spiral ramp leading up through the roof, part of it made out of stone and the other part made out of wood. There were two box-shaped prison cells made out of wood, one on the left, one on the right. The left cell was completely empty, while the right cell held Aryll plus two other girls: one looked rich, the other looked poor.

The heroes looked around the room in awe, and then Link squints his eyes at the cell on the right, noticing Aryll inside playing with the seagulls. It seems that they never left Aryll's side no matter what happens to her.

"Sis!" Link called out happily, catching Aryll's attention as she looked outside the cell.

"Big Brother! You came!" Aryll beamed.

"I'll get you out of there!" Link said as he made his way towards the cell, with the Mario cast and Luka, who were smiling, following behind. But then, Link stops midway, with an uneasy look on his face as he and the others started to hear flapping sounds. "Wait a second… What's this noise…?"

"Sounds like the flapping of a bird's wings." Luigi stated.

"_A… bird? No… don't tell me…_" Link thought traumatized, knowing exactly the perfect candidate for that as he looked up and saw… "OH **NO**!" he yelled as none other than the good ol' giant bird landed hard in front of them.

***SQUAAAWK!***

The bird screeched loudly before glancing down at the group, with Link bracing himself while Luka and the Mario cast looked horrified.

"Helmaroc King!" Luka exclaimed.

"You know his name?!" Link asked.

"What did I just told you before? Now do you believe me?"

"Guys, stop rambling!" Toad exclaimed. "H-He's going to-!"

Toad was cut off when the Helmaroc King suddenly lunged his head towards the group, yanking all of them into his beak and flying away with them.

"BIG BROTHER! NOOO!" Aryll screamed as she watched the bird flying away.

Flying all the way up to the open roof leading outside, the Helmaroc King did a turn, heading straight to the shipwreck at the other side. Standing there was a certain man with dark skin, red facial hair, and wearing a long black robe. All of you could easily remember that he is Ganondorf, but all of our heroes still didn't know that right now… or do they?

Link actually seems to be the only one who doesn't know Ganondorf yet, but he knew that this man didn't show any signs of good intentions, given that the Helmaroc King was apparently loyal to him. Luka obviously knew Ganondorf, of course. And as for the Mario cast, while still not 100% knowing Ganondorf in this new era they were in, they could see some of their previously met Ganondorf's traits just by looking at his face; the green skin… the way his red facial hair was arranged… black clothes… We could say that in the Mario cast's perspective, they were on the subject of, "This man looks somehow familiar to us… Could he be…?"

The heroes didn't speak a single word, instead showing shocked expressions as they kept staring at Ganondorf, wondering what he was going to do with them. After just a few seconds, Ganondorf made a small head tilt, signaling the Helmaroc King to dispose of them.

In response to his master, the Helmaroc King tosses the heroes far away into the distance as they screamed until they were nowhere to be seen.

Far away from the fortress, at the open sea, we can see Link, Luka and the Mario cast floating unconscious on the water's surface. Everything seemed lost and hopeless for them…

…that is, until a certain red boat came cruising in towards them.

**To be continued…**

* * *

**When Luka was first introduced in my stories, she was still a work in progress since I really wanted to give more emphasis on her fire powers. Then, this idea of lava and magma manipulation came to my mind, and I went for it! I did this in order to not make her just a simple and ordinary fire user. Same applies to her ability to teleport with the use of volcanic smoke, as I made her motif being based on volcanos in general. Plus, this ability is reminiscent of the famous ninja smoke.**

**That scene where Link gets catapulted to the Forsaken Fortress still makes me laugh to this day, and I even reflected that on Luka, since she's supposed to be representing me when I'm on the subject of Zelda games.**

**A red boat saves them... This should lead them to the start of a new adventure! See you on the next chapter! Please review!**


	3. Set Sail!

**Took quite a while, but here's the next chapter!**

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 3: Set Sail!**

"Link… Link… Wake up, Link!" an unfamiliar voice spoke.

"Uhhh…" Link moaned weakly, opening up his eyes… only to shut them back.

"Pull yourself together, Link!"

"Mmm… Huh?" this time, Link was able to fully open his eyes, finding himself lying down on a boat slowly swaying to both sides since it was floating on the water. "Mmm… What am I doing on a boat…?" he wondered as he got up. "…And where is everybody else?"

"Well? Have you come to your senses yet?" the voice asked, catching Link by surprise.

"What the-?! Who's speaking to me?!" Link asked, looking around to search for the source of the voice.

Then, the boat's head swung around to face Link, and much to his shock, it was talking!

"You are surprisingly dull witted…"

"AAH!" Link yelped, causing his to lose his balance and fall on his back. The boat guffawed at his reaction.

"Did I startle you?" it asked.

"Very much…" Link groaned. "But seriously, HOW are you talking?!"

"I suppose that is only natural. As wide as the world is, I am the only boat upon it who can speak the words of men. I am the King of Red Lions. Do not fear… I am not your enemy."

"_Well that's a relief…_" Link thought as he sat up.

"Link… I have been watching you since you went to the Forsaken Fortress to rescue your sister. Same goes to the other people who were accompanying you. I understand how your desire to protect your sister could give you the courage to fearlessly stand up to anything… But such a bold attempt, even with a group of people, was foolhardy!"

"What do you mean?" Link asked. "Also, where are the others?"

"I'll tell you about them later. Firstly, I suppose you all saw him… The shadow that commands that monstrous bird…" Link was able to picture back that man he and the others saw previously, the one that gave him the chills. "His name is…Ganondorf…"

That name really did send a shiver down Link's spine, as this really said something to him; even if he had never heard it before, it yet still gave him a feeling of unavoidable dread.

"…He who obtained the power of the gods, attempted to cover the land in darkness, and was ultimately sealed away by the very power he hoped to command." the King of Red Lions said. "He is the very same Ganondorf… The emperor of the dark realm the ancient legends speak of… I do not know why the seal of the gods has failed, but now that Ganondorf has returned, the world is once again being threatened by his evil magic."

"_That's some story… It sounds similar to the stories about the ancient hero my grandfather told me…_" Link thought deeply, until the King of Red Lions' next questions snapped him back to reality:

"Tell me, Link… Do you still wish to save your sister from him?" Link immediately nodded. "And will you do anything to save her?" another nod. "…I see. In that case, I shall guide you and your new friends as we go forward…advising you on what you should do and where you must go."

"What?! Why are you ordering me to do things like that?!" Link questioned. "All I want is to go back to the fortress and save my sister!"

"I know that, but Ganondorf is the one in charge of the fortress. And Ganondorf cannot be defeated by human hands, let alone by what little strength you and the others possess. The key to defeating Ganondorf is locked away in a great power that you can wield only after much toil and hardship. Do you understand?"

"***sigh* **alright, I'll do it." Link sighed before nodding.

"In that case, we depart! To the Great Sea! **[beat]** …Ah, but I am getting ahead of myself." the King of Red Lions looks down in embarrassment. "This is actually a bit embarrassing for me to admit, but…although I am indeed a boat that possesses the power of speech… I possess no sail. And a boat with no sail can sail no seas."

"Oh, that's just great…" Link sweatdropped.

"Not to worry, young lad. You asked me about the others that were with you, correct?" Link nodded at that. "Well, they all happen to be in this place we're standing."

The place they were just now? Windfall Island, a lively town with mostly shops, but there was also a lighthouse with a windmill, a school, a cafe bar, an auction house, and a jail. The huge gate at the town's entrance is known to be one of this island's most famous features. Windfall is also the most populated island of the Great Sea, as people from all over the world come to it, including many sailors.

"I have brought you all far to the east of the dark gaze of the Forsaken Fortress. On this island is a town of merchants who deal in a wide variety of goods. If you search hard enough, surely you can find one who will sell you a sail. I am sorry to ask this of you, but without a sail, I will be useless to you."

"Okay, I can handle this." Link said as he hops out of the King.

"But remember: there is no time to play. Come back here immediately as soon as your errands are done. And remember to bring your friends here as well."

"Got it. So where exactly are they?"

"They should be waiting for you near the shore. Now go."

Link nodded back and moved on, going up on the island's shore, where he saw the Mario cast chatting with Luka next to some stone fences up ahead. Because of the hot sun shining on everybody else's faces, Peach was holding out her white and pink umbrella to shield her smooth skin from the sun.

"…and as for what happened to the kingdom, I cannot reveal it yet to you because… spoilers!" Luka spoke during their conversation.

"Seriously, it has to be somewhere around here!" Toad exclaimed. "Even if it's in the middle of the ocean!"

"Oh, but we'll see it much later on-…" Luka was about to continue when she turned her head and saw Link standing a few feet away from them. "Hey, look! Link is awake!"

"Oh, yay!" Yoshi cheered as they all ran up to Link.

"Hey, guys!" Link waved.

"Hi, Link!" Peach replied. "Are you well?"

"I'm fine, thanks. Have you guys met with the King of Red Lions too?"

"We have." Mario nodded. "That's because we woke up before you did."

"So we waited for you to wake up by hanging around this island, which Luka told us it's called Windfall Island, for a bit." Luigi added.

"Huh, that should help me out!" Link exclaimed. "You see, the King requested me to look for a sail."

"A sail, huh?" Toad said. "We just so happened to see a stall further up ahead that has exactly what you're looking for!" he pointed to the entrance.

"Really?! Thank you! You guys are the best!"

"Well, that's what friends are for!" Peach giggled, as Link chuckled cutely in response. "_Wow… He's so much cuter-looking than the other Link we've met…_" she thought.

"Alright! Let's get going, shall we?" Luka winked.

Everyone else nodded in agreement, as they made their way into the town, going up some stairs until they reached the stall, where a man wearing a blue parka-like coat was running it.

"Excuse me, sir. Could you-…"

"My story is a strange one… I came across cursed seas from a land far away…a land where the blizzards blow violently…heading for this town called Windfall." the man spoke melancholically.

"Yeah, yeah, now could you-"

"Dear me, my ship was torn apart by vicious winds, and this island is where I washed ashore. There was one other person with me, yes there was…"

"Okay then, but-"

"But, I dare say, he was immediately arrested based on his somewhat suspicious looks and thrown right into jail. Yes, just locked up somewhere on this island. Needless to say, I'm really worried about him. Would you be so kind as to help free him from captivity? Indeed, it would be appreciated."

Link was a bit annoyed for being interrupted three times, but he decided to go along with what the man said. "Alright, fine. But let's make it a deal. We'll free that other person, and you'll give us a sail in return, okay?"

"It's a deal, young lads. And thank you."

The heroes then walked away, where Luka began to speak:

"Link, how about you go free the person by yourself? The town's jail is right over there." she pointed to the location.

"Okay… but why only me?" Link asked.

"I and Mario and his gang will stay around here to do… some other important things!"

"If you say so…" Link shrugged. "I guess I'll see you later." he went off.

"Um, what are we going to do here, Luka?" Luigi asked.

"Well, are you guys good at hide-and-seek and tag?" Luka replied.

"We are a little bit, but why are you asking us that?"

"Because… there's a little group of kids that are going to do these two games at once. Follow me!"

The Mario cast just shrugged at each other, before following Luka.

* * *

_**With Link…**_

He eventually made it into the jail, where he spotted a short man wearing some sort of green jumpsuit sitting at the corner saddened. That is, until he noticed Link outside and immediately rushed closer to him with glee.

"Hmmmmmm! I see the same green clothes and the same green hat! By the look of you, I'd say… Sir! Could you, by chance, be…a fairy?" he spoke.

"…Excuse me?" Link blinked in confusion.

"Goodness! Did you feel my telepathy?! That's why you saved me, isn't it? Isn't it? Isn't it?"

"Uh…"

"Do not worry! Tingle knows without you telling him, sir! Yes, sir! Tingle is my name! I have been looking for you and your kind, for I, too, long to be one of the fairy folk! And yet, I was mistaken for some kind of troublemaker and put into this dreadful sort of place! How disrespectful!"

"_Huh, so he really is that vendor's friend, after all…_" Link thought. "_But the things he's saying are not making any sense!_"

"Please, Mr. Fairy… Rescue poor Tingle from this place, and take him to where you and your kind live in splendor!"

"Um, alright…" Link replied and looked around the room. He then found a switch on the floor hidden behind some pots and stepped on it. Eventually, the cell's door creaked open, allowing Tingle to walk out.

"Hoorayyyy! Thank you oh so VERRRY much!" Tingle cheered.

"You're welcome…" Link replied while sweatdropping.

"Splendid! Tingle is returning now to his own special island. Will you come find him?"

"_He even has an island?!_" Link thought as Tingle started to walk out, but then he stopped and looked back at Link.

"Ahhh! I was forgetting something important! Oh, Mr. Fairy! You want to come to my island, don't you? Don't you? Don't you? So here's my chart leading to it!" Tingle hands link the Tingle Chart. "And remember, if you ever need any help with your charts, just leave it to Tingle! Don't ever forget it!" he then walked out.

"_Oh good, I was wondering when that guy would just shut up…_" Link thought. "_Still, if he said that he could help me with charts, maybe I should trust him._" he was about to leave, until he looked back at the cell. "_Hmm, I wonder if there's anything in there? Just to make sure…_"

* * *

_**Back with the others…**_

"Well that was… something." Mario spoke. "We played hide-and-seek with those Killer Bees just to hand their teacher some Joy Pendants?"

"Hey, at least we got this from her!" Luka winked as she was holding the Cabana Deed. "I'll let you know; this thing will be very useful to all of us later on!"

"If you say so…"

"So, now what?" Yoshi asked. "Should we head back to Zunari's stall?"

"Yep, let's do that!" Luka replied. "By this point, Link should have already freed Tingle."

They then walked back to the stall and told the vendor, named Zunari, about the person.

"Ahh, yes! I just saw him walk out of jail a few seconds ago!" Zunari exclaimed. "I give props to you all and the other boy for attending my request! Now, as part of the deal…" he went back to get the sail.

"Oh! The sail!" Toad exclaimed.

"Indeed! You see, the people on this island have no interest in venturing out into these dangerous seas, so my chance of selling this to them is rather bleak. The bleakest I can describe. I'd really like to ask 200 Rupees for it, but as a favor for rescuing my friend, perhaps we may strike a deal… How does…80 Rupees sound?"

"We'll buy it." Luka responded, handing Zunari 80 Rupees. Good thing they collected a lot of money while in the fortress.

"Yes, yes, yes! Thank you very much, indeed! Very well, young masters… As I promised, please! Take this!" he hands them the Boat Sail. At last, they can now venture into the Great Sea! "Yes, yes, yes! You have made a good purchase today! And you have saved my life and business as well! Treasure it dearly! It is the finest sail in the world! Treat it as such!"

The gang thanked Zunari before leaving, reaching the location where the King of Red Lions were.

"Oh! Those looks in your eyes… So, you've found yourselves a sail, have you?" he asked.

"We have." Peach nodded, putting away her umbrella since they were under some shade.

"Very well! But… Where is Link?"

"Oh, um… About that-…"

"…aaaaaAAAAAHH!" Toad was cut off when Link's scream suddenly came from above them, and our hero eventually lands in the water.

***SPLASH!***

Link quickly resurfaces, spitting out salty water as the Mario cast looked at him in shock while Luka just shook her head playfully.

"***cough* *cough* **Stupid rat…" Link muttered.

"Well, that's one way to make an entrance…" Yoshi remarked.

"…Link?! Where did you come from? What just happened?" Peach asked.

"A rat just made me fall into a trapdoor under me…" Link grumbled, shaking off the water.

"…Okay?" Toad blinked.

"Anyways…" the King of Red Lions interfered, trying to change the subject. "Now! A westerly wind blows! Hop in, you all, and let it carry us to the east!"

"Oh, boy! Let's go!" Luka beamed excitedly, as everyone climbed aboard.

Link stood in the very middle of the boat, as he was going to be the one to steer it. Mario, Peach, and Luigi, in this exact order, sat on the right side in a vertical row, going from up to down, with Toad, Yoshi, and Luka mirroring them on the left side.

With that, Link attached the sail, and the boat began to head into the open sea.

* * *

The Great Sea was very wide. So wide that it seemed to stretch as far as the eye could see. The heroes felt the breeze of the eastern winds blow right into their faces. It gave them a nice feeling of freedom, as they could just let the winds carry them away. Periodically, they could hear the cries of seagulls flying nearby, as they were able to keep up with the boat's speed as if it was no hard work. This really was a nice experience for all of them, as they never actually sailed the seas by themselves.

"Isn't this just fun, guys?" Luka smiled.

"It really is." Peach replied with a smile. "I never thought that the wind blowing in my face would feel so good!"

"I'll say!" Toad threw in. "As being an adventurer myself, I never actually experienced this before! This is so amazing!" he exclaimed as he turned around to glance down at the clear blue sea waves.

"Oh, look! Seagulls!" Yoshi chirped as he looked up to the flying seagulls.

"_I just know Aryll would love this…_" Link thought as he also watched the seagulls before they flew away.

"I am so glad you all are enjoying this!" Luka chimed. "Because the sailing is my favorite part of the game!"

"And I am happy for you to be experiencing that in reality, Luka." Mario smiled as Luka giggled back.

After a little while, the King of Red Lions could see they were nearing their destination:

"There! On the horizon!"

"Is that our destination?" Luigi asked.

"Indeed, it is… Dragon Roost Island!"

"_Oh ho ho, yes! I love the music in this place so much!_" Luka thought as the boat came upon shore, where they hopped out of it.

Dragon Roost Island can be seen from a great distance, as it primarily consists of a huge mountain crossed with a volcano. The bottom portion had a lot of Bomb Flowers and rocks on the path up by foot that could only be removed with the use of those flowers. Near the peak of the mountain, there was a swirl of dark grey clouds, giving our heroes an unnerving feeling; they're pretty sure those clouds feel a bit out of place there. What they don't know yet, due to the dark grey clouds blocking it, is that at the very peak sat a large red dragon. Well… at least until the King of Red Lions told them about that:

"High atop this island's peak lives the spirit of the skies…a great dragon by the name of Valoo. You all must go see this dragon and request from him a jewel called Din's Pearl and a red Star Piece. Ask the people of the Rito tribe who inhabit this island about how to see the dragon."

"Got it." Link nodded along with the others as they began to walk away, until the King of Red Lions stopped them:

"Oh, I almost forgot! Wait just a moment!" the heroes looked back at him, and they saw that he somehow now has some sort of white stick on his mouth. "This is the Wind Waker! It is a baton of sorts that was used long ago when the people played music in prayer to the gods. In those days, simply using it allowed one to borrow the power of the gods. I thought it might be of some use to you. Perhaps you should try using it, Link."

"Alright." Link took the Wind Waker from him. Then, it began to emit white sparkles from its tip, surprising everyone. "Hey, what's it doing?!"

"I suppose the baton has chosen you to be the new conductor." the King of Red Lions said. "Use it wisely, Link! Let the gods lend you their power to the melodies you'll learn and play!"

"And speaking of which…" Luka interjected. "You can learn a new melody right now, Link! Come with me!"

"Seriously?" Link's eyes perked up.

"In the meantime…" Luka looked at the Mario cast. "You guys clear up the path leading up to all of us! See those rocks?" she pointed to the rocks on the way up. "They can only be cleared up with bombs, so that's why there's plenty of Bomb Flowers around for you to use!" she then left with Link off to the right side of the island.

"Yep, Luka really does know what she's doing." Mario remarked, breaking the stunned silence from them.

"Well, anyway…" Toad said. "Let's do what she told us to do and clear up the path!"

Unknown to them, the King of Red Lions had listened to the entire conversation, and could tell that from what he gathered, Luka was the only one who's fully aware of what to do.

"_That girl sure knows a lot about this world… Could she already know about my secret and what became of my kingdom…?_" he thought. "_Well, if she knows that too, I hope she keeps it a secret to everybody…_"

* * *

"Here we are!" Luka smiled as she brought Link to the Wind Shrine. "See those arrows on this stone? You need to wave your Wind Waker like a conductor's baton in those directions!"

"Um, okay." Link nodded, pulling out the Wind Waker and waving it up, left, and right. Strange noises of music echoed from the baton as Link learned his first Wind Waker melody, the Wind's Requiem, and then gusts of southern winds suddenly blew into their faces.

Wait… did the direction of the wind just change?

"Yep! That's a miiiiiighty nice breeze!"

"Whoa!" Link jumped when he heard this unfamiliar voice as he and Luka turned to the left to see a large cyan frog-like creature sitting on a cloud. "W-Who are you?!"

"The name's Zephos. I'm the god of winds." Zephos replied casually. "So, you're the new Wind Waker, are you?"

"Well… I _am _wielding it." Link shrugged.

"Great, great. For a beginner, you've got a nice wind sense about you. I like you, kid!"

"You're welcome…?"

"That tune you just picked up? Well, it gives you control over the direction the wind blows. Depending on how it's used, wind can be a good thing…or a very bad thing. You want an example of it being a bad thing, then you should see my brother."

"_Oh yeah, those cyclones…_" Luka thought.

"It saddens me to say that my brother, Cyclos, is miffed about his monument here being broken, and now he spends his time creating cyclones to torment people with. So if you encounter any cyclones at sea, chastise my brother for me, will you? And THAT…is my request for you!" Zephos then soars away into the distance while laughing.

"That was… something." Link blinked.

"There will be a lot of things later on that you'll find weird, believe me." Luka said. "But hey, aren't you amazed that you now have the ability to control the direction of the wind?"

"Pretty much. I wonder if this baton can do more than just that?" Link pondered, looking at the Wind Waker in awe before putting it away. "Anyways, maybe we should go back to the others if that was the only thing you wanted to show me."

"Yep, let's go back." Luka nodded as she and Link left. When they met up with the Mario cast, they saw that the path leading up was cleared out of boulders.

"Hey, you're back!" Yoshi exclaimed. "We just finished up clearing the path like you told us to do, Luka."

"Perfect!" Luka chimed. "Now we can start climbing!"

The heroes then began to climb up the path leading to where the Rito live. But the Mario cast still hasn't let go of their priority to find the lost kingdom of Hyrule in this world. Perhaps the pearl and the star piece they have to obtain would give then clues about it?

Anyhow, they eventually came upon the postman Rito, named Quill, looking out at the sea. He then heard footsteps from behind him as he turned around to see Link and some other people with him.

"Link? Link, is that you? Oh, it is! I'm pleased to see you're OK."

"Wait, you're that postman from earlier, aren't you?" Link guessed.

"I am. Call me Quill." Quill replied. "I must say… Not only you've got yourself new companions with you, but you've traveled quite far for one with no wings… And your sister? Is she…"

Link crestfalled. "I really don't want to talk about this…"

"He unfortunately failed to rescue her, Quill." Peach informed.

"Is that so?" Quill spoke calmly. "Well, don't worry too much, Link. I'm sure she'll hang in there." he assured. "Also, may I know who you all are?"

"Oh, sure." Peach nodded. "I'm Peach."

"Mario."

"Luigi."

"Yoshi."

"Toad."

"And Luka!"

"It's a pleasure to meet you all." Quill replied. "Say, I have an idea. Would you all like to meet our chieftain? I've told my people here about you, and all of us Rito are very concerned. I'm certain the chieftain will befriend you and lend you the aid of our aerie."

"Well, sure. Why not?" Toad shrugged.

"It's settled, then! I'll fly on ahead and let everyone know you're coming. Come inside, everyone! I'll be waiting!" Quill then sprouts out wings and flies off.

"Hold on a second… Where did those wings come from?!" Luigi questioned. "First he had arms, and then they suddenly shifted to wings?"

"The Rito tribe are humanoid bird creatures." Luka said. "I could explain about them to you all right now, but I think I'll let the chieftain do it instead."

"Okay, if you say so." Mario shrugged as they all made their way to the Mail Center.

The inside of the Center was very tall, with a spiraling road on the wall, all entirely made out of stone, with many entrances leading into rooms and others leading outside. There were many Rito flying and walking about minding their own business with their deliveries, since they were messengers. Upon entering, the heroes immediately saw the chieftain in front of them, with Quill at his side. However, it seemed that the Chieftain was in the middle of a conversation with another Rito:

"Well? Have you discovered the cause of the great Valoo's anger?" the Chieftain asked, but the Rito shook his head. The Chieftain then saw Link and the others coming in as the Rito leaves. "Ah. So, you are Link, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Toad and Luka, are you? Quill has told me all about you."

"So you also know about my situation?" Link asked.

"Yes. A troubling tale, indeed… I insist that you let us know if there is anything we can do to help you. We shall do everything in our power to assist you."

"I highly appreciate that, sir." Link felt thankful for them. "_They sure are nice people…_" he thought.

"However, in the meantime, we have a problem of our own to deal with…"

"And what is it?" Mario asked.

"When you all arrived on the island, did you notice the raging dragon perched atop the mountain?" Quill asked.

"We did." Luigi nodded.

"As you can see, we of the Rito tribe are profoundly connected to the sky. We make our livings on the airways." the Chieftain said. "We do so by the graces of the sky spirit, Valoo. When a Rito reaches adulthood, he or she journeys to the top of Dragon Roost to receive a scale from the great dragon. It is this scale that enables the Rito to grow his or her wings."

He paused for a bit before continuing, "Recently, however, the once-gentle Valoo has grown violent and unpredictable. Sadly, we can no longer approach him. If this continues, the fledglings who are of age will never be able to receive scales from Valoo on Dragon Roost. They will remain wingless, and in time, our very way of life will be threatened."

"_That's horrible…_" the heroes thought.

"As chieftain of the Rito, my first responsibility is to solve this problem. My apologies, but I must ask you to wait for our assistance until this is done. Will you do so?"

"Well, okay the-"

"Wait, chieftain!" Link was cut off when Quill interjected. "What do you think of consulting Link and his friends with regards to your son, Prince Komali? As you can see, they are gallant young lads! I feel certain that Prince Komali would open his heart to them and speak freely of his fears and worries."

"That may be…" the Chieftain whispered before addressing the heroes. "Let me be direct. My son, Komali, is of the age to earn his wings… Yet…he is weak, in some ways…and in light of the current situation, he may just give up on ever getting them… What say you all? Will you share some of your courage with my son? Will you meet with my son?"

"We can do that!" Toad exclaimed as they all nodded.

"I thank you! We shall do our best to solve our problem as quickly as possible, so that we may better help you with yours. I have something I wish for you to give to my son." he hands them the Father's Letter. "I am counting on you!" he walks away.

"The room way in the back on the first floor is Prince Komali's room. You have to go down a couple steps to get there. When you meet Prince Komali, please don't get offended by his manner. He has no bad intentions, I promise." Quill said before flying off.

"Well, how about we pay Komali a visit and give him the letter?" Luka winked. "_Even though I found him to be a bit of a jerk at the beginning…_" she thought as they made their way to Komali's room.

There, they found him sitting shyly on his bed, clutching a bright red orb and a red sharp crystalline object on his hands… Could those be Din's Pearl and the red Star Piece that the King of Red Lions told them to get?

"Huh? Who goes there?" Komali looked up, seeing the gang in front of him. "Oh, just a bunch of non-Rito people. What do you want from me, huh? I… I don't want to talk to anyone right now!" he scoffed.

The heroes didn't show it, but they got indeed a bit offended by Komali's harsh attitude.

"Um, well…" Peach spoke up, trying to act as calm as possible. "We were tasked by your father to deliver this to you." she showed him the letter.

"A letter? From my father?" Komali takes the letter and reads it. But even after reading it, he was still acting reluctant. "Oh, sure, telling me to be brave is easy enough for him… It's not like he's the one who went through that horrible experience… It's not like HE still has to go get a scale from Valoo."

"_Not even the chieftain has wings?!_" Link and the Mario cast thought upon hearing that shocking revelation.

"You're in this letter, too, you know… Poking your noses in other people's business… You're all nosy, aren't you? ***grunt* **Sorry, but I really don't feel like going to see Valoo right now." he muttered, turning away from them. "I mean, how am I supposed to get a scale from him when he's so upset?"

"We can try to calm him down, you know." Luigi offered.

"What? Are you trying to say that YOU ALL can calm Valoo down?" Komali easily dismissed them. "Psssssh! That's just a big, fat lie! It's easy to SAY you can do anything! Bragging doesn't cost a thing! I'll tell you what: if you can find me someone who can get past all the obstacles on Dragon Roost to get to Valoo… THEN I'll listen to anything you say! Now get out of my face, do-nothing people!"

"_Rude!_" the heroes thought as they immediately left his room.

"Alright, don't worry, guys. He'll become a much better person once we help Valoo, I can assure you." Luka assured, trying to calm everyone down.

"I sure hope so..." Toad muttered.

"Where do we go next then, Luka?" Yoshi asked.

"We'll be making our way to the first dungeon! This way!"

Luka led everyone to another exit, leading to a portion of the island where a harsh wind in contrast to the gentle breeze would blow in their faces…

**To be continued…**

* * *

**Don't worry; Medli will be introduced in the next chapter, where we'll be off to the Dragon Roost Cavern! Please review!**


	4. Dragon Roost Cavern

**Really sorry for the long wait. I was sort of in the mood of "Not feeling like doing the chapter" recently. However, I did not let that get to me! So I fought against that and finished this chapter!**

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 4: Dragon Roost Cavern**

The air around our heroes suddenly changed drastically as they exited the passage. The wind was howling everywhere, blowing hot ashes around the area, which had two elevated grounds, high walls of stone, and there was a large chasm between the two elevated grounds. By the two large arches standing opposite each other on each ledge and by the wooden planks hanging down from each of them, we could tell that there once stood a bridge to connect both grounds, only that it was now broken.

"What is this place?" Yoshi asked.

"The Dragon Roost Pond." Quill suddenly came from behind them.

"Whoa!" Link jumped. "Quill, don't sneak up on us!"

"Pardon me. Anyways, this place used to be a spring here… But then the great Valoo… He became so angry, and… In his rage, he shook the mountain and that boulder crashed down, plugging the spring. You can see the result."

"Oh dear…" Peach frowned.

"Indeed. By the way, how was Prince Komali?"

"Well…" Toad crestfalled as he and the others told Quill what happened.

"Oh… That doesn't sound right… Not at all…" Quill murmured. "Medli may be partially to blame for the bad turn that Prince Komali's taken…"

"Wait, who's Medli?" Luigi asked.

"Oh, she's the current attendant to the great Valoo. See, Prince Komali's grandmother was the great Valoo's former attendant. She was an amazing woman. Medli was honored to have her as her teacher. She was kind and brave, and unsurpassed in her dealings with the great Valoo. Unfortunately, Medli felt that she was not yet worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as her."

"We see it now…" Mario mused.

"So, in order to prove her worth, Medli decided to climb Dragon Roost on her own and meet with the great Valoo. However, to reach the great Valoo, one has to get past Dragon Roost Cavern, which is full of dangers. I can hardly imagine that Medli would be fine on her own due to that…"

"Definitely not." Luka shook her head.

"And that's why I have a favor to ask of you. Will you all venture into Dragon Roost Cavern and find Medli?"

"Sure. We can do that." Mario nodded.

"We can…?" Link whispered.

"Trust us, Link. We know from experience."

"Okay…" Link said. "_What did they mean by 'from experience'?_"

"I knew I could count on all of you!" Quill exclaimed. "Well, I wish you luck! And be careful!" he walks back into the passage.

"Alright, sooo… Dragon Roost Cavern is on the other side of this chasm, right? How do we get there?" Toad asked.

"Simple. Quill told us that that boulder over there plugged the spring, isn't that right?" Luka pointed at the boulder, as everyone else nodded. "If we remove it, the water could come flowing back up!"

"Oh, of course!" Link exclaimed. "I suppose we need a bomb to destroy it… Maybe even multiple bombs!"

"Just leave that to me." Peach grinned as she thrusts her arm towards the boulder. "Psych Bomb!"

Eventually, bombs rained down from the sky above the boulder and exploded on contact. With the boulder gone, a giant geyser blasted upwards from where it stood, flooding the chasm with water.

"Hey! It worked!" Yoshi chimed as Luka and the rest of the Mario cast celebrated. However, Link was looking very dumbfounded and shocked by what he just saw Peach do earlier.

"…Did she just made bombs appear FROM THE SKY?!" he yelled.

"I did! Wasn't that great?" Peach giggled.

"Wow, now I've seen everything…" Link remarked before they all jumped into the water and swam to the other side.

There, they did a little Bomb Flower Basketball on two Rito statues to make them fall down as platforms to cross the lava pool. With that, they made it to the dungeon entrance.

"You ready for this, Link?" Luka asked with a smile.

"I'm a little nervous, but I'm ready." Link nodded firmly.

"It's okay to be nervous. I was like that before." Luigi said.

"Plus, we'll always be on your side." Mario assured.

"Thanks, guys." Link smiled before they all went inside.

* * *

The interior was dark and dim, with walls and floor made out of cobblestone and there was a row of three statues against the opposite wall up ahead. The heroes looked around for any sign of Medli, but found nothing.

"If Medli was here before, how did she get through this room?" Luigi pondered.

"You know, I also have no idea." Luka shrugged. "Especially due to the fact that those statues are in their starting positions."

"The statues?" Link walked over to them. He saw a short depression on the floor in front of the leftmost statue, so he pulled it to the depression, but there was nothing behind it. "Um…"

"Think, Link! There has to be a reason for why you had to move that statue down!" Luka winked.

"Hmm… Oh, I know!" Link then pulls the middle statue to where the left one once stood, revealing a small passageway behind it. "Nice!"

"Good job on your first puzzle, Link!" Luka praised. "There's much more to come, so look forward to it!"

They all went into the passage, where the next area was guarded by two Bokoblins. Once the heroes defeated the Bokoblins, Toad caught sight of a pot emitting out some sort of strange green mist.

"Uh, guys? What's this?" he asked.

"A Warp Pot!" Luka answered. "It only works if we come upon another one, then we can use these pots to warp around the dungeon!"

"That sounds neat!" Peach exclaimed as Mario noticed two unlit torches, so he lit them up by shooting a fireball at them, causing a chest to appear in the middle. Inside of it was a Small Key.

"I still don't know who the heck would put a key in a chest…" Yoshi deadpanned.

"Yoshi…" Mario glanced at Yoshi while mirroring his expression.

"I know, I know. We should stop questioning anything that doesn't make sense to us."

"…_What is up with them?_" Link thought as Mario unlocks the door with the key and they all went to the other side.

The next room was boiling hot. The heroes were standing on an alcove that stuck out into a large cavern that glowed bright orange due to the enormous pool of lava up ahead. The heat was finally starting to kick in for our heroes at this point.

"Ugh, it's so hot…" Link groaned.

"Tell us about it. We're inside of a volcano, after all." Toad said as Luka burned down the wall made out of wooden boards blocking their path.

"Well, we have to deal with it if we want to clear this dungeon." Luka stated.

"Okay, so where do we go next?"

"I can see a locked door on the far left." Mario said. "So maybe we should make our way to the bridge in the middle."

"Sounds good, bro." Luigi nodded as they made their way to the bridge by following the wooden path that goes along the wall and jumping across gaps. But once they finally got to the bridge, a few Fire Keese flew after them.

"Are those bats on fire?!" Link exclaimed.

"They're Fire Keese!" Luka said. "Hurry, let's get to the other side!"

The heroes made a run for it, and then Yoshi tossed eggs at the Fire Keese once they made it to the other side to defeat them. There was a large boulder on the wall, but just as Link was about to go pick up a Bomb Flower… Peach just pulled out a Bob-omb from the ground and tossed it at the boulder.

"…_She just pulled out a bomb from the ground. That's not odd at all…_" Link thought before they all went to the next room, where Yoshi Flutter Jumps over the lava to reach a chest containing the Dungeon Map and then Luka manipulates the lava, splitting it open to reveal a pathway for everyone to cross.

"_Wow…_" Link and the Mario cast thought, amazed at Luka's powers as they reached the other side.

"Hold on." Luka stopped everyone before they could climb up the ladder. "Let me take care of something first." everyone watched her climbing a few steps on the ladder with a flame ignited on her hand and then she shot it at what appears to be nothing above, only for them to hear a cartoony noise of something gelatinous shaking abruptly soon after. "***sigh* **The first times I played this game, that Red Chuchu always gets me every single time…" Luka sighed.

"Um, just what was at the top?" Toad asked. "By the noise, was it some kind of jelly?"

"Close enough. It was a Red Chuchu, a gelatin-like enemy that sneaks in the floor as a puddle for an ambush." Luka explained.

"Not only you know about the enemy, but you already knew that it was on top?" Link asked.

"Yep. I told you that I know everything in here. Now let's get going!"

They climbed the ladder and went into the door, taking them to a dark cave area. Eventually, a Blue Bokoblin suddenly broke through the wall of wooden boards and ran over to the heroes to attack them, but was easily defeated.

"Talk about a bad ambush…" Link remarked.

"Tell us about it." Mario agreed as he went over to another wall of wooden boards and burnt it down with a fireball. He did the same thing to another one up ahead and got another key in a chest as Link slashed through two Red Chuchus.

Arriving back at another portion of the main room through the next door, Yoshi tossed an Egg Bomb to get rid of a nearby giant boulder to clear out the path, and they made their way to the locked door they saw earlier and unlocked it with the key.

In the next room, they took care of more Red Chuchus that dropped down from the ceiling, plus a Blue Bokoblin who broke through yet another wall of wooden boards.

"You know, these guys are not that good at ambushes…" Yoshi commented.

"I know, right?" Link said as Luigi burned down another boarded alcove and stepped on the pressure switch behind it to remove the bars on the door. They went through it, taking them… outside.

"Wait, we're outside?" Luigi asked.

"Quite a nice change of pace, right?" Luka winked.

"At least it's not as hot as it was inside." Toad said as they pressed on, with Luigi shooting a lightning bolt at a Bokoblin on the other side of the wooden bridge to defeat it.

On the other side is a lava vent on the wall about halfway up the ladder. Luckily, Luka used her powers of lava manipulation to stop the spraying lava, making it easier for the heroes to climb up the ladder with no problems. Then, once they reached the top, a Kargoroc flew down to their level.

"What is that?!" Luigi flinched.

"A Kargoroc!" Luka exclaimed as Toad easily took it down by firing mushroom spores at it.

"The way it looked… Is it related to that giant bird who kidnapped Aryll?" Link pondered.

"Well, both a Kargoroc and the Helmaroc King end with the word 'roc', so maybe they're part of the same bird family." Luka guessed.

"That is a good point." Mario stated before they pressed on, with Luka using her powers to stop another lava vent so that they could sidle on the wall safely, and then Peach tossed a Bob-omb at the boulder to blow it up, revealing a door behind it, taking them back to the dungeon's interior.

"Oh great, we're indoors again…" Toad groaned.

"Don't worry, there's going to be only one room with lava if I remember correctly." Luka assured as everyone looked at a set of stacked up blocks.

"That looks a bit complicated…" Link trailed.

"No, it's not complicated at all! All you have to do is create a ladder of blocks!" Luka smiled.

"Oh! Now I see!" Link exclaimed before pulling one of the bottom blocks to make its respective column fall down, and then he climbed up on it to pull another one, thus creating a ladder leading up to the room above.

"You're getting good at puzzles, Link!" Peach smiled.

"Oh, it was nothing…" Link replied as they all climbed up, taking out a few rats and finding the Compass in a chest. With that, Toad looked at the map of the dungeon, seeing that there were still a lot more of rooms for them to go through.

"Oh man, we still have a long way to go…" he informed.

"Well, we are climbing a mountain, so…" Yoshi shrugged.

"You know what? Maybe we should let the Author do a time skip right here." Luka said.

Well, I highly appreciate that!

* * *

_**Some more dungeon climbing later…**_

The heroes were finally near the peak of the island, where they could hear Valoo's angry roars, and because they found no sight of Medli anywhere else in the dungeon, they were sure that she might be here. They began climbing up the spiral staircase as it began to crumble behind them, but they were quick enough to reach the top.

After passing through an open gate, the heroes spot two Shield Bokoblins standing in front of a wooden cage holding a Rito girl inside. Could that girl be Medli?

Just then, a wooden gate slammed down behind the heroes, trapping them inside as the two Shield Bokoblins charged after them. Link proceeded to do a Spin Attack at the Bokoblins, only for them to raise their shields. Then, Mario and Luigi took this opportunity to burn the shields down with a fireball before kicking each of Bokoblins away and finishing them off by swinging their hammers.

However, a Kargoroc just so happened to pass by and drop down a Moblin to the arena once both Bokoblins were defeated.

"Oh, crap! It's one of those guys we encountered back at the Forsaken Fortress!" Luigi exclaimed.

"You're right, but this time we've got to take it out!" Mario hollered as the Moblin thrusts its spear at the heroes, but the spear just so happened to hit a large mushroom that Toad conjured as a shield.

"Nice reaction there, Toad!" Luka complimented.

"You're welcome." Toad grinned.

Due to hitting a mushroom with the spear, the Moblin was thrown off balance for a bit, giving Link the chance to strike it with a sword thrust. This only made the Moblin angered as it swung its spear horizontally to knock Link away.

"Link!" the Mario cast and Luka cried out.

The Moblin charged after them, but Peach fired a light beam at it to stun it, and then Luka set its bottom on fire, making it hop around clutching its butt while also dropping its weapon. Link saw the spear landing near him as he was just recovering and had the idea to pick up the spear, and, after Yoshi struck the Moblin with his tail, Link finished it off by stabbing it with the spear.

"Wow, who knew using the monsters' weapons could come in handy?" Link remarked.

"Link, you're okay!" Peach exclaimed. "Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm fine. Just a little scratch."

"A scratch? Let me see it." Link shows Peach the scratch on his face the Moblin did when it swung its spear at him. "It's a pretty visible one. Here, stand still."

"Huh? What are you…?" before Link could finish, Peach gently placed her hand at the scratch as it began to glow pink. Meanwhile, the rest of the group noticed that there was a key on the spot the Moblin used to be.

"Looks like that big guy was carrying a key with him." Toad said.

"Maybe it's the key for the cage!" Yoshi exclaimed as he picked up the key and went over to the cell to unlock it.

With Link and Peach, the princess had just finished healing the scratch on Link's face, as it was completely gone.

"There we go." Peach smiled.

"Oh, wow…" Link breathed, rubbing the healed spot. "How did you…?"

"I specialize in healing." Peach giggled.

"That's incredible… Thanks!"

"No problem!"

The two then went over to the rest of the group, as the Rito girl just walked out of the opened cell.

"Oh, thank you guys! You saved me!" she thanked before glancing over at Link. "Wow! You really DO have green clothes and a strange-shaped hat…"

"_Strange-shaped hat?_" the heroes thought.

"You must be Link, right?"

"Yes, I am." Link nodded.

"And these are your new friends, aren't they?" everyone else nodded. "Pleasure to meet you!" she made a bow.

"Likewise." Mario smiled. "So, who are you?"

"Oh, me? I'm the attendant to the great sky spirit, Valoo. My name is Medli." the heroes' eyes widened upon hearing that name. "Well, to tell the truth… I'm not an attendant quite yet. I'm actually still studying to be one."

"Medli, we were looking for you!" Luigi replied. "I'm surprised you actually managed to climb all the way to the peak."

"You were looking for me?" Medli asked before everyone explained everything to her. "I see… So everyone is worried about me. I'm really sorry… I didn't mean to make them worried! I really wanted to see what was wrong with the great Valoo so I made my way up here. I may be just an apprentice attendant, but I can understand some of the great Valoo's language."

"And did you manage to find the answer about his anger?" Link asked.

"I did, and it's a terrible one! Some creature is doing awful things to the great Valoo's tail! That's why he's so angry!" Medli answered as right above them, Valoo continued to roar furiously, shaking the whole area around them. "The great Valoo's tail hangs down into the room right below here. There's got to be something in there… I wonder if those mean monsters who captured me have something to do with it… We've got to do something! Now! Before it's too late!"

"Don't worry, we'll find the monster responsible." Luka assured.

"Right! I'll go and tell everyone what's happening!" Medli then reaches into her pocket and hands Link some sort of grappling hook. "Here, Link! Use this to get out of here! It's what I used to get this far. It's a device we Rito used before we evolved wings."

"A grappling hook?" Link looked at it.

"Well, I'll leave the rest to you all." Medli began to fly away. "Don't you worry about me, everyone. Get going!" she flew off.

With that, Link uses the Grappling Hook at the branch above and used it to swing to the other side. The Mario cast followed him by just jumping across the gaps with their unique jumping abilities, although Toad had to conjure a mushroom trampoline so that he and Luka could leap across since Luka doesn't have any jumping skills and that Toad was carrying a heavy backpack.

After clearing some gaps, the heroes reached a door and went inside, leading them to a room where the big boss' lair was just up ahead, only that they didn't have the Big Key yet.

"Let me guess, we have to go around the dungeon again just to get the boss key?" Toad guessed.

"Yep." Luka nodded. "Thankfully, we can use the Warp Pots to make things easier."

"Wait, we need a specific key in order to reach the creature's lair?" Link asked.

"Exactly. This will apply to all the upcoming dungeons we'll venture."

"Oh, boy…" Link sighed as everyone proceeded to jump into the Yellow Warp Pot and begin the search for the Big Key.

* * *

_**Some more time later…**_

"Well that wasn't so bad, wasn't it?" Luka grinned as they were making their way back to the room with the boss door.

"I guess so." Link shrugged.

"Hey, this pendant I found… Isn't it the same one you're wearing, Luka?" Yoshi asked, as he was holding a Joy Pendant in his hands.

"That's right! It's a Joy Pendant!" Luka exclaimed. "The one I'm wearing is just a replica, though."

Soon, they were all standing in front of the locked boss door.

"Alright, you all ready for our first dungeon boss of this world?" Luka smirked, punching her palm.

"You bet we are!" Mario grinned.

"You guys seem pretty used to this, apparently." Link observed as Luka and the Mario cast unlocked the door and went inside. "_Are they really from another world?_" Link thought as he followed them.

At the other side of the door was a circular arena with a lava pool in the middle and a few wooden platforms above going along the wall. The door eventually slams shut from behind the heroes before they looked up to see a long red tail, possibly belonging to Valoo, hanging at the ceiling, covered by a chunk of lava rock. Of course: the creature, whoever who might be, must of have used lava to trap the great sky spirit's tail on the ceiling, and because magma hardens quickly, it won't take long for poor Valoo to get his tail stuck for all eternity. Now that's just wrong.

Aside from Valoo's tail, the room appeared empty at first, but then it started shaking violently as the lava began to brighten and ripple. Eventually, a monstrous, one-eyed armored centipede bursts out of the lava, screeching loudly while breathing out fire before pounding its claws down next to the heroes, knocking them back. That was Gohma, or at least, Wind Waker's version of Gohma.

"What on earth is THAT?!" Link yelled.

"It's Gohma!" Luka exclaimed.

"Wait, since when did Gohma learn how to adapt to hot environments?!" Luigi questioned.

"No, it's not THAT Gohma! It's a different one!"

"What are you guys talking about?!" Link asked.

"Everyone, RUN!" Toad warned as he saw Gohma about to slam its claws at everyone, so they quickly ran out of the way just in time.

"Okay, we need to drop out the talking and focus on the boss." Mario said. "Luka, since you're the expert, what do we do?"

"We need to drop that chunk of lava rock down into Gohma in order to shatter its armor." Luka instructed. "Link, use your Grappling Hook on Valoo's tail while the rest of us distract Gohma."

"Got it." Link nodded as he ran to one side of the room while Luka and the Mario cast ran to the other side.

"Hey, big centipede! Over here!" Luka called out to Gohma, who immediately glanced at her and the Mario cast and screeched before breathing fire at them, only for Luka to extend her arms and stop the fire from reaching them.

"Are you sure you can hold it on long enough?" Peach asked.

"Don't worry, guys. This should give Link plenty of time to drop down the chunk." Luka smiled confidently.

Speaking of which, with Gohma distracted, Link was free to aim his Grappling Hook at Valoo's tail and toss it at it. As the Grappling Hook wrapped around the tail and started pulling it down, Valoo, on the outside, felt that and made a surprised-looking face as he glanced down at where his tail is, wondering just what in the world was going on inside.

After a few swings, Link let go of the tail, aiming himself to where the others were. Valoo did a roar while swinging his tail around as the chunk started to detach from the ceiling before it eventually crashed down right into Gohma's head, causing its thick armor to shatter completely.

Unfortunately, that did not make Gohma happy at all, as it let out another screech while the chunk broke apart in the process.

"Great! Now that its shell is gone, we can aim for the eye!" Luka grinned.

"We just need to bring it closer to us." Yoshi stated.

"That's simple; use the Grappling Hook!" Luka exclaimed, but before Link was able to do that, Yoshi had already tossed an egg at Gohma's eye, causing it to screech in pain as it laid down to their level. "…Or that too, I guess. Okay, Link! Stab its eye!"

"Right on!" Link nodded and did just what he was told, thrusting his sword right into Gohma's eye.

Gohma swayed around, screeching in pain as its body slowly began to stiff and dry out before exploding. The lava pool also cooled down, and then some odd magical wind gusts showed up in the middle.

"Yeah! We did it!" Link cheered.

"Yes." Luka nodded. "That was only the beginning, though, as you guys might already know!" she glanced at the Mario cast, who nodded in agreement.

"Seriously, how are you guys so familiar with this?" Link asked.

"Now let's go to those wind gusts in the middle! They'll take all of us out of here!" Luka exclaimed, ignoring Link's question as she and the Mario cast walked over to the portal and disappeared.

"Oh, come on!" Link grumbled before following suit.

* * *

Outside, Valoo felt that his tail was free again, so he let out a howl that echoed around the entire skies and even catching the attention of the Rito as Medli was telling them what happened. The air around the spring suddenly cooled down, as all the ashes and the crazy winds stopped blowing. The massive grey ring near the mountain's peak also dissipated. All of the Rito were happy; their beloved sky spirit has finally calmed down and back to normal.

At the beach area, the heroes reappeared, and soon noticed that Dragon Roost felt different than before. So they looked up at the mountain's peak, and saw that Valoo wasn't angry anymore, so they assumed that getting rid of Gohma worked.

"Guys!" Medli's voice came as the heroes turned around and saw her with Komali. "Well, Prince Komali? Don't you have something you want to say?"

"Um, I heard everything from Medli…" Komali shyly spoke. "Everyone… Thank you so much! I'm sorry I mistrusted you! I hope I can be like you all someday."

"You will, Komali! I just know it! Right, guys?" Medli smiled.

Komali then hands the heroes the pearl and the star piece he was holding, much to their surprise. "So, everyone? …Here! I want you to take these! Giving you the things I value most will give me the courage I need to stand up to bad things!"

With that, the first pearl of the goddesses, Din's Pearl, and the Red Star Piece, were in the heroes' possession!

Then, everyone heard Valoo's roars as they looked up to him.

"The great Valoo is grateful to you, everyone." Medli said.

"(O Heroes, thank you! O Hero in green, use the Wind God's wind!)" Valoo spoke in a strange language that none of our heroes was able to understand, so I translated it here for all of you. Despite that, the Mario cast felt that this type of language sounded… familiar to them somehow.

"Use the wind god's…wind?" Medli pondered. "That's what he said, but I don't understand. I wonder what it means?"

"_Was he talking about the new melody I learned for the Wind Waker…?_" Link thought.

"Oh, I almost forgot! The great Valoo also names you all true heroes." Medli added. "I agree with him. As far as we're concerned, everyone, you really ARE heroes!"

"Well, I'm going to go and visit Valoo!" Komali exclaimed. "I'll come and see you sometime – with the best pair of wings ever!" he took off.

"Hey! Prince Komali!" Medli called out. "Thanks so much, everyone. See you again someday!" she smiled before going after Komali.

"Well, guys…" Luka stretched her arms up. "Our work in Dragon Roost is done. Time for us to head back to the King of Red Lions and set off for our next destination!"

"Just a question." Link interfered. "Why exactly are we collecting these extremely rare items?"

"The King of Red Lions will tell you about it. Now let's go!"

They made their way to where the King of Red Lions were and told him everything that happened.

"Ah, I see…" he mused. "It would seem that Ganondorf sent those monsters to this place."

"_GANONDORF?!_" the Mario cast thought with horrified looks on their faces. Luka looked at them and could tell that by their looks, even after their previous adventure with the Hero of Time, they were still terrified of Ganondorf.

"Ganondorf did that?" Link asked normally, not seemed to worry about Ganondorf at all since unlike the Mario cast and Luka, he doesn't know who Ganondorf is… _yet_.

"But that would mean…" the King of Red Lions muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing. There is no time to lose! We must depart at once for the place where the next pearl and star piece sleep! We sail to the south!"

"But… the wind is still blowing to the east."

"Link, use the Wind Waker!" Luka reminded. "Remember that melody you learned? Just conduct it and say the direction you want the winds to blow!"

When realization finally struck Link, he quickly pulls out the Wind Waker and conducts the Wind's Requiem.

"_Let's see if it works…_" Link thought, taking a deep breath and calling, "Winds! To the south!" as he points the Wind Waker to the south.

In the blink of an eye, the winds immediately answered to his call as they now were blowing to the south, much to Link and the Mario cast's amazement.

"Holy Hylia… It actually worked!" Link exclaimed in amazement, eyes open wide.

"That's amazing…" Luigi breathed. "You can control the wind with that!"

"Now _that_ is really cool." Toad said. "I never thought I'd see anything like this!"

"Well then, now that the winds are blowing to the right direction… Let us depart!" the King of Red Lions declared.

The heroes nodded as they climbed into the boat and set sail to their next destination.

"_I just hope I can find the answers to all my questions soon enough…_" Link thought.

**To be continued…**

* * *

**I made Medli appear very late into the story compared to the original game for a change of pace to make my story differ from the game even more. Same goes for having Link learn the Wind's Requiem earlier than usual.**

**Off to Forest Haven next! Until then! Please review! **


	5. The Deku Tree and the forest children

**Wow, July is almost over... So here's one more chapter!**

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 5: The Deku Tree and the forest children**

"Hey, guys?" Link called out to the Mario cast as they were sailing to their next destination.

"Yes, Link?" Yoshi asked.

"When the King mentioned Ganondorf, I noticed that you all had horrified looks on your faces. Why is that?"

"Oh, um…" Peach trailed off, trying to come up with the right words in order to hide everything they know about Ganondorf from their previous journey. "We…read about Ganondorf back at the Forsaken Fortress before you came."

"He's quite a dangerous man, indeed." Toad said. "You better be careful if you even meet him in person, since you never know what he can do."

"How dangerous is he?" Link asked.

"More than you can ever imagine." Luigi shuddered. Link gulped at that.

"Well… I'm quite surprised you guys know all that despite being from a different world!" he exclaimed. But then, something came to him, "Hold on… _where_ exactly did you read about Ganondorf in the fortress?" he questioned with a somewhat suspicious look.

Now the Mario cast looked nervous, even though they weren't showing it in front of Link. How are they going to get out of this?

"We, uh… heard all this from his minions!" Yoshi hazarded a lie, in which the rest of the Mario cast quickly nodded.

"_Hmm, that answer seemed too far-fetched. I just know they're lying._" Link thought with a hardened look on his face. The Mario cast saw his look and tried hard to not show any sights of nervousness towards him.

"_Oh boy, I hope we're getting near to our destination…_" Luka thought, having heard the entire conversation.

Determined to make the Mario cast spill the beans of truth, Link attempted to ask them another question, only for the King of Red Lions to cut through by declaring:

"Yes! Do you not see what rises up from the horizon?" the Mario cast was thankful for that interruption as well as Luka, while Link was left a bit frustrated. "That is where you must go, everyone… the Forest Haven."

"_***sigh* **__Fine, I'll make them talk out the truth next time. They're hiding something from me, and I WILL get to the bottom of this._" Link thought, feeling defeated. For now, he and the others must focus on their next task.

This time, there were two separate islands. The one on the left takes the form of an enormous dead tree trunk, out of which flows a stream. The one on the right appears to be the same thing, except that there are thorny vines growing around it.

"It may appear as though this is but a great tree rising far above the ocean's surface… But it is a sacred place. It is inside this grotto that you will find the spirit of the earth, the Great Deku Tree." the King of Red Lions explained.

Just by hearing the words 'Great Deku Tree' made the Mario cast's eyes perk up in surprise, remembering back at their previous adventure where they first met said tree. The guardian of the Kokiri Forest had unfortunately died after they and the Hero of Time tried to free him from a curse. Therefore, after the seven-year time skip, a sprout of the Great Deku Tree appeared in his place. If this new world they are in is still the same Hyrule they were before, could this new Great Deku Tree the King of Red Lions mentioned be the sprout all grown up?

Link did not notice the Mario cast's surprised looks since he was too focused on the King of Red Lions' words, but Luka did, as she shot them a snarky smile, knowing exactly what they must be thinking about.

"You must speak with the Deku Tree and receive from him the sacred gem known as Farore's Pearl and the Green Star Piece." the King of Red Lions continued as the group climbed up to the island. "I fear that Ganondorf's vile hand may have already reached this most sacred of sanctuaries. Go forth with caution, everyone."

"We will." Mario nodded firmly before they all moved on, climbing up some ledges… and then a Boko Baba suddenly shot up from its bulb, roaring at the heroes.

"AAH!" they yelped.

"A Deku Baba?!" Luigi exclaimed.

"No, that's a Boko Baba!" Luka corrected as Link quickly slashes the Boko Baba repeatedly until it was defeated, leaving behind a wooden stick and a Boko Baba Seed.

"What's the difference?" Toad queried.

"Well, Deku Babas drop Deku Sticks and Deku Nuts. Meanwhile, Boko Babas drop a regular stick and Boko Baba Seeds, and the latter can be used to make potions." Luka explained as Link picked up the Boko Baba Seed in curiosity.

"So this is a Boko Baba Seed?" Link asked, with Luka nodding.

"Be careful guys, since there are more Boko Babas ahead." she warned.

Luka wasn't kidding, as there were more Boko Babas scattered around the island as the heroes made further progression, being careful not to fall into the water stream. They also had to take care of some River Octoroks as well. Finally, they made it to the top and went inside the dark tunnel.

* * *

The grotto, being much bigger on the inside, was a sight to behold; it was surrounded in a mysterious green mist, wooden walls stretched all the way up, fireflies were flying around, and many trees were scattered around the place. But none of that could compare to the tall tree standing at the heart of this place. Due to this tree standing out the most in this area, the Mario cast guessed that it could be the Great Deku Tree.

However, not too long after the heroes entered this place, Red and Green Chuchus suddenly sprouted from the surface of the Deku Tree' face. Feeling threatened, the Deku Tree moaned in distress, catching the attention of the heroes as they quickly climbed up to the plateau where it stood.

"Am I seeing things… or does this tree has a FACE?!" Link questioned.

"It really does, but that's not what matters right now!" Luka replied. "We need to save him!"

After they all nodded in response, Yoshi does a Yoshi Bomb, which was powerful enough to knock down all of the Chuchus stuck to the Deku Tree. With the Chuchus now on ground level, the heroes were able to easily defeat them.

Once all of these jelly monsters were gone, the heroes decided to check on the Deku Tree, so they walked over to a lone lily pad that was standing in front of the guardian and stood on it, as it was big enough to fit all of them. The Deku Tree looked down at them with a smile and began to speak to them… in the exact same unintelligible language that Valoo spoke last time, so once again here's the translation:

"(That green garb you wear… could you be the legendary hero? And all of you with him… perhaps you could be the new destined ones waiting to be awakened? Has the King of Red Lions at long last found the Hero of Time and the Sages?)"

Wait a second… The Sages?! Was he talking about the Six Sages who lend their power to the Hero of Time? How could he possibly believe that Luka and the Mario cast were Sages, if that was even true, which even I highly doubt? But, all of that doesn't seem to really matter since none of our heroes understood a single word of what he was talking about. Link, in particular, was all slackjawed, the Mario cast was just confused, and Luka just looked at the guardian with a look of disapproval with her hands on her hips, as if she was trying to say, "We don't speak that language, you know?"

"(What is the matter? Do you not understand the ancient Hylian tongue?)" the Deku Tree asked, noticing everyone's looks. "(So… you are not the Hero of Time and the Sages.)"

The lily pad then suddenly rose up from the water, revealing a large root underneath it. The heroes were now at the Deku Tree's mouth level.

"I must apologize. I was in error." the Deku Tree apologized, speaking in the language that they now could understand. "Little boy, I saw your clothing and your large company, and suddenly I felt a longing for an age gone by… That longing caused the ancient tongue to pass my lips."

"_I wonder what he was talking about…_" Link thought, as the Mario cast all had the same thought as well.

"I am the guardian spirit of this Forest Haven – the Deku Tree. I owe you my thanks for your aid in ridding me of those foul creatures… Tell me… Was it not the King of Red Lions – the boat who speaks – who led you to this place?"

"Y-Yeah…" Link nodded, still having to process the fact that a tree is talking. "_How is everyone else not fazed by that at all?!_" he thought, glancing at Luka and the Mario cast.

"So it is true… Then you have come here because you have need of the pearl of the goddess and the piece of the forest star?" the heroes nodded. "I see… I knew there was a reason the monsters had begun to congregate in the regions around my wood. Now I understand it. He has returned… Ganon, aka Ganondorf, has returned…"

"_Um… Is his name Ganondorf or Ganon? Now I'm stumped…_" Link thought, his confused mind coming back. "_Also, no pun intended._"

"In that case, we must make haste. Koroks! Little children of the woods! These travelers are not your enemies. Let your hearts be at ease, and show yourselves!"

With that, small wood creatures with leaf masks on their faces suddenly appeared from within the Deku Tree's brows. They looked at the heroes for a few seconds, before they jumped into the air, arranging themselves into a circle pattern as they began to glide down towards the large lily pad while holding some sort of leaf propellers that were spinning like helicopter blades.

"What do you call yourselves?" the Deku Tree asked.

"I'm Link, and these are my new friends, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Toad, and Luka." Link answered.

"Hmm, interesting names…" the Deku Tree mused. "_I suppose I was right to be reminded of the Hero of Time, and the other names except for the last one sounded highly familiar…_" he thought before shaking it off and resumed, "Well, then, Link, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Toad, Luka… These are the Koroks – the spirits of the forest."

At this very point, the Koroks landed on the lily pad and began to stare at the heroes in curiosity, as they were murmuring some words about them in their own language, so the heroes didn't quite catch about what they were saying.

"Once upon a time, long ago, the Koroks took on human forms, but when they came to live on the sea, they took these shapes." the Deku Tree said.

…Took on human forms? Doesn't this sound familiar…?

"Now they fear people…but to me, they will ever be my cherished little children. As it happens, you have come just in time for a ceremony that the Koroks hold but once every year. It is about to begin. I shall grant the pearl and the star piece to you once their ceremony is complete. I must apologize for the brief delay, but if the ceremony is not completed soon, an ill fate could befall us."

"Well, a promise is a promise. We can wait." Peach smiled.

"Many thanks!" the Deku Tree thanked. "Ahem! So, let it begin! Are you ready, my children?"

The Koroks were about to reply with a nod, until…

"W-We are not, O Great Deku Tree! Something terrible has happened! It is Makar! Makar!" suddenly, another Korok came flying by the Deku Tree in a panic.

"What is the matter, Linder? You and Makar are always late…" the Deku Tree reminded.

"N-No! It is not that, O Great Deku Tree! Makar…fell into the Forbidden Woods!"

As soon as Linder said the words 'Forbidden Woods', all of the Koroks on the lily pad gasped in shock and horror, with some of them even screaming.

"WHAT?! THE FORBIDDEN WOODS?" the Deku Tree yelled.

"I told him to be careful! But still Makar flew above the Forbidden Woods, and as he drew close to it…" Linder trailed off.

"Foolish little Makar…" the Deku Tree muttered. "Link, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Toad, and Luka, you have heard all this?" they all nodded. "The Forbidden Woods are right beside the hallowed island of our Forest Haven. Those woods… The whole region is a vile place that is home to evil beasts."

"_Well, no wonder why is it called the '_Forbidden_ Woods'…_" the heroes thought.

"And now it seems they have taken a child of the forest named Makar… Your presence here is no mistake, I deem. The King of Red Lions likely expects great deeds of you – it is why he brought you here. I am sorry to ask this of you, but can you go rescue young Makar for me?"

"Anything for a forest guardian like you!" Yoshi chirped while nodding, along with everyone else.

"I knew I could also count on you!"

"But, Great Deku Tree!" Linder interfered. "…People cannot fly through the air…"

"Ah, yes… Thank you, child. You are right. It is not possible to enter those woods from the sea, is it… Link, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Toad, and Luka, I would guess from your sizes that you are heavier than my Korok children…yet I think we may still be able to solve this dilemma. You must use the items I shall bestow upon you all and fly through the sky!"

With that, the Deku Tree closes his eyes and concentrates, before grunting and roaring, producing seven large magical leaves near his top. Because of that, the heroes couldn't quite see what he just created.

"Hmph! Making seven of these is tougher than it seemed. Forgive me, you all, but could you climb up to my crown and get the leaves from up there?" the Deku Tree requested as the lily pad descends back to ground level.

"Okay… but how?" Link asked.

"We can give you some advice!" one of the Koroks chimed. "Just hop into those Baba Buds! They'll shoot you up high into the air!"

"Make sure to land in another one to keep going higher!" another one added.

"Oh, thanks!" Link thanked.

"You go by yourself, Link." Luka said. "I need to debate something with Mario and his friends. Don't worry; we'll catch up to you soon."

"Well, alright." Link shrugged before hopping into a Baba Bud to start climbing. Luka then walks over to the Mario cast, who was just admiring the scenery until they saw Luka coming to them.

"What is it that you want to talk about to us, Luka?" Peach asked, apparently overhearing the early conversation with her and Link.

"Some _very _interesting stuff." Luka grinned. "First, you do remember that the Deku Tree said that the Koroks used to be humans, right?"

"We do." Luigi nodded. "Wait, are you telling us that…?!"

"Yep; the Koroks used to be the Kokiri." Luka casually replied.

"WHAT?!" the Mario cast yelled.

"How the heck did they went from humans to… THESE?!" Toad questioned, directing at some Koroks.

"Well, I actually don't really know, but my guess is that the Koroks came from a different family tree. The Kokiri came from the _original _Deku Tree, the one who you all watched him die, while the Koroks came from this Deku Tree, which is the Deku Tree's sprout. So, in a way, the Koroks aren't just evolved forms of the Kokiri; they're from a different Deku Tree generation." Luka explained.

"Huh, I guess I was right about this Deku Tree being the sprout we met at our previous adventure." Mario recalled.

"You thought that too, bro? I think we all thought that!" Luigi stated.

"Okay, so what else do you want to talk to us about, Luka?" Yoshi asked.

"You know, speaking of weird tribe evolutions, I think I'm just gonna drop this right now." Luka said. "The Rito tribe? They used to be the Zoras."

The Mario cast went silent. How does _that_ make sense?! At least the Koroks with the Kokiri were a bit understandable, but the Zoras were a race of aquatic people, while the Rito are a race of bird-like people. How is it possible for them to shift from fish to bird?

"…I'm not going to even question that this time." Toad deadpanned, breaking the stunned silence.

"You want an explanation for this? Fine. You remember that Ritos gain the ability to fly by receiving a scale from Valoo, right? Well, scales were pretty common upon Zoras too, so I guess they changed forms through a scale change." Luka explained. "Not to mention that swimming and flying are very similar processes, so this change isn't that dramatic if you think about it."

"Well… I guess that makes sense. Sort of…" Mario shrugged. "Let's just roll with it."

"But still, why did the Zoras and the Kokiri receive these tribe changes, anyway?" Peach pondered.

"There's a main reason for this, but I'll only tell you once we finally find the lost kingdom of Hyrule." Luka answered.

"Man, I just hope that once we collect all the things we need, we can finally find that kingdom…" Toad muttered.

"Oh, we will! Soon enough."

"You're not helping…"

"Hey, guys!" Link came up to them, holding the seven Deku Leaves with him. "I just got the leaves!" he hands each of them to the group. "So, what are these called?"

"They're Deku Leaves!" a nearby Korok answered. "They give you the ability to glide through the air! Just jump, and hold the leaf like a parachute. They can also be used while you're on the ground to blast gusts of wind in front of you! Who knows? Maybe these wind gusts could come in handy at some point!" he explained. "But be careful though; these leaves run on magic power, so if you run out of it you won't be able to glide. You can tell that it is almost running out of magic power if the leaf is emitting out lesser mist than before, and if it doesn't emit any mist at all, that means it ran out completely. Magic Jars are the only thing that can refill your magic power, so try cutting grass to find some. Oh, and Boko Buds can also refill magic power if you hop in."

"Wow, that's some good advice! Thanks."

"No problem! Be careful out there! Please find Makar for us!"

"We will. We promise." Peach assured as the Korok waved good-bye to them and walked off.

"So, where do we need to go now?" Luigi asked.

"We need to jump from the Deku Tree's crown, the place where Link was before, and use the leaves to glide to that opening on the wall." Luka pointed. "I'll use my teleportation powers to take us there." she snaps her fingers, and they disappeared in a puff of smoke. They reappeared back at the Deku Tree's crown. "Alright, you ready to jump?"

"Ready!" the rest replied.

They all jumped off and immediately brought out their Deku Leaves, holding them like a parachute, to glide toward the opening Luka pointed earlier. Once they landed, they wasted no time in heading for the opening.

* * *

When they came out, they were surprised to see that it was now nighttime. Apparently, they spent quite a long time inside the Forest Haven.

Even so, Link cut some grass in order for him and the others to refill their magic power before gliding towards the small tall trunk-shaped island on the left. There, they refilled their magic power again, and then Link conducted the Wind's Requiem to change the wind's direction, making it blow northwest so that it was now directing to the Forbidden Woods.

Using the wind's direction to guide them, the heroes glided to the Forbidden Woods' entrance, making sure to hitch a ride on the spinning wind vortex to gain altitude since the ledge of the dungeon's entrance was slightly higher than the island they were on, and then a pesky Peahat came over to greet them.

"What is that?!" Link asked.

"A Peahat." Luka replied. "Just stun it with a gust of wind and then strike."

Remembering the Korok's advice, Link brought out his Deku Leaf and waved it in front of him like a giant fan to blow a gust of wind in front of him and it hit the Peahat, causing it to land on the ground before falling victim to Link's sword slash.

"And that's just the beginning of the many dangers we'll face in this dungeon." Luka stated. "But if we were successful in clearing the first one, then I'm sure we can do this one too!"

"Yeah!" the rest exclaimed before they all went into the next dungeon.

**To be continued…**

* * *

**I was going to include a little bit of the Forbidden Woods, but the chapter was getting quite long so I scrapped that.**

**I did my best to come up with a possible theory about how did the Kokiri and the Zoras evolved into the Koroks and the Rito, so I looked up through every single canon Zelda information on the books I have (especially the Hyrule Encyclopedia) and combined all this information into an explanation. Then, I added that into a line for Luka, since she's a Zelda expert.**

**Hmm... why exactly did the Deku Tree mention about the Sages and why did he refer them to the Mario cast and Luka? This is a question that will only be answered during the Triforce of Courage's quest.**

**So for now, the Forbidden Woods is next! I have something quite funny planned for this dungeon's boss battle! (If you're a "hardcore" Wind Waker player, you might know what it is!)**

**Please review!**


	6. The Forbidden Woods

**Really, really sorry about the long wait. I've been stressed out with collage things, which sucked for me...**

**Well, I'm a little less moody now, so I was able to finish this chapter!**

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 6: The Forbidden Woods**

The Forbidden Woods' atmosphere was pretty similar to the Forest Haven, except it appeared darker and dimer. The first room our heroes were featured a lot of dead trees and vegetation, making this place feel like it was abandoned for many years. And this could be a possibility, since it is said that there were some abandoned houses that were destroyed and decayed around in this place, so… could the Forbidden Woods be what remained of Kokiri Forest? That's pretty deep if you ask me.

"Is it me, or does this place look way bigger on the inside than on the outside?" Link wondered.

"You're not the only one." Luigi said. "We had this experience before."

"What did you say?"

***PLOP!***

Before anyone could respond, a swarm of Green Chuchus suddenly dropped down from the ceiling and landed in front of them after a few steps inside the woods. They quickly took care of all the Chuchus, and then Yoshi eyed at the closed door up ahead.

"That door is apparently shut by those vines…" he mused as he approached the door, and that caused the strange blue flower-like thing in the middle to close itself.

Link and the rest of the Mario cast also went up to Yoshi, while Luka had ventured to the right side of the room to find a treasure chest holding the Dungeon Map.

"_I'm pretty sure that's the earliest Dungeon Map you get in the game._" she thought before heading back to the others.

"How are we going to open it?" Peach asked. Link swings his sword at the vines, successfully cutting them down, only for them to grow back.

"Well that didn't work." he remarked.

"Let me try." Mario stepped in. "Maybe it has to be with this flower thing." he then attempts to burn down the flower, but since its petals were closed, that did nothing. "What? That's odd…"

"You could say that literally." Luka finally spoke. "Because the only way to destroy this flower is by hurling a Deku Nut at it." she then points to their left. "There's one right there." seeing the Deku Nut, Link walked over to it and picked it up. "However, we have to be far away because this flower will shut its petals if we get too close. And also, Deku Nuts will disintegrate as time passes, so be careful."

"That's some really helpful advice there." Link said, surprised at how well Luka knows about what this world offers as he throws the Deku Nut at the flower with its open petals, destroying it and freeing the door.

"Why in the world is it that Deku Nuts are the only things that can destroy these weird flowers?" Toad questioned.

"Don't ask me. I don't know either." Luka shook her head as everyone went to the next room, where it was filled with Baba Buds and moving thorns on the walls.

"I don't know why, but these large thorns are creeping me out…" Luigi trailed.

"Oh, chill out, Luigi. Just don't touch them and we'll be fine." Toad replied.

"Looks like we'll have to use these Baba Buds to get up there." Link looked up, seeing the next door on the second floor of the dungeon.

By using the Baba Buds and their Deku Leaves, the heroes made it to the second floor, only to discover that the door was shut by the same strange flower as well. Because there wasn't a Deku Nut nearby, Luka told Link that a Bomb Flower would work too, so he picked one at the side and tossed it at the flower, but not before he and the others had to deal with a few Green Chuchus.

The next room had an open ceiling, with our heroes being even able to look up at the starry skies. There was a wooden hanging cart, which would serve as the only way for our heroes to cross to the other side, but it was currently inaccessible due to it being positioned in the very middle of the gap. The heroes looked around and saw a pinwheel to the left and to the right, so they guessed they would be the ones to move the hanging cart.

Since the right one was too far away for the Deku Leaf's wind gust to reach, they went for the left one, watching it spin as the hanging cart was moving over to them. Luka was the first one to hop on and smiled back at everyone:

"Aren't these wind mechanics that great in this dungeon?" she winked.

"I guess." Mario shrugged as he and everyone else joined Luka on the cart and used their Deku Leaves to get to the other side.

They entered the next room of the dungeon, where they split up to take out the Peahats and Boko Babas that threatened them. Once the room was clear of enemies, the heroes used the Baba Buds to reach the top of the large stump at the opposite end, where they found another door shut by the strange flower.

"You know, there's something that occurred to me…" Peach pondered.

"What is it?" Luka asked.

"If a Bomb Flower also worked on getting rid of that flower, maybe another sort of projectile can work too?"

"Hmm, I never actually thought of that before. Maybe. But first we must step back a little so that the petals open up, and that involves using that other hanging cart."

With that, Luka uses the Deku Leaf at the nearby pinwheel to bring the hanging cart over to them, and when they hopped on it, Peach plucks a turnip and tosses it at the flower, which surprisingly, met with the same result as the Bomb Flower.

"It worked!" Peach exclaimed.

"Well, I guess we don't need those Deku Nuts anymore!" Luka chuckled. However, Link still needed to process the fact that Peach just pulled out a vegetable _from the wood_.

"How can you pull out vegetables on a _wooden floor_?!" he questioned.

"Hey, you just saw me pulling out a bomb from the ground once, so how is that surprising for you?" Peach asked as she, Luka and the rest of the Mario cast hopped off the cart and went through the door.

"…That's completely different!" Link exclaimed. "Also, wait for me!" he quickly followed the others.

They next walked down a corridor, which was empty at first aside from the lonely Deku Nut up ahead.

"Sweet! Easy Deku Nut for us!" Toad exclaimed and rushed for it.

"Wait, Toad!" Luka called out. "It's a…"

"WAUGH!" Toad yelled as large thorns suddenly popped up from around the Deku Nut, knocking him back.

"...trap." Luka sweatdropped.

"Are you okay, Toad?" Peach asked as Link used the Deku Leaf to blow away the Deku Nut so that he could pick it up and throw it at the flower blocking the door.

"Yeah, I'll live." Toad replied before they all went through the door.

They found themselves into a very wide room, most likely the dungeon's main chamber. Everyone marveled at the sight, as there was a large hanging plant in the very middle and around it on the walls were moving platforms.

Going right, the group leapt to one of the moving platforms and then jumped to the other one as soon as the one they were standing on moved closer to it. Unfortunately, the platform led them to a locked door, and this one was not shut by a flower.

"A locked door… We haven't come across a key yet, have we?" Mario pondered.

"Now that you said it, I don't think so." Link shook his head.

"We can use this Deku Nut on that door over there, though." Yoshi said, pointing to said door. "Maybe we can find a key there."

With that, they used the Deku Nut on the door to unlock it and went inside. The next room had a depression filled with… those spiky things that like to attach themselves into you, if you know what I mean. And because there was a Chest in there, Link had no choice but to go down, where the Morths immediately did the thing.

"Argh… GET… OFF ME!" Link yelled, destroying all the Morths with a Spin Attack before opening the Chest that held 10 Rupees.

"That's… a pretty lame reward." Toad commented.

"No kidding..." Link deadpanned before climbing out of the depression and they all went through the next door.

In the next room, there were a few trees around and two treasure chests on the other side. Obviously, the path to get to them wouldn't be easy, since as soon as they took their first step forward, a wall of large thorns popped up from the sides, and when they moved forward, more thorns appeared, forcing them to find an alternate way around, so this room was pretty much a maze.

Eventually, the group managed to reach each of the chests by blowing up the wooden walls blocking them with bombs. One of the chests held the compass, while the other held a key, the latter being the exact thing they needed to progress further into the dungeon.

Soon, they made it back to the central chamber and unlocked the door with the key, as all of them were eager to see what lies on the other side. There was another cart with pinwheels on both sides of the new room, plus a Peahat that was quickly taken care of before the group made it to the other side by riding the cart with the Deku Leaf.

The group walked into the next room, encountering Boko Babas, Wingless Mothulas and Peahats as they made their way up to the treetops with the use of the Baba Buds. As much as they wanted to head to the door that was currently shut by two of those flowers, they decided to check the door on the opposite side first.

As soon as they stepped into the next room, the door behind them suddenly slammed shut, so Luka and the Mario cast braced themselves, knowing that this means a fight coming up, and then Link looked up to see… falling glitter?

"Uh, guys?" he awed. "What's this?"

Yoshi sniffs the glitter. "Doesn't have any smell… Where is it coming from?"

It was then that the source of the glitter suddenly spreads its wings and takes off, flying right in front of them as they jumped.

"Eeep!" Peach yelped.

"What is that?!" Luigi asked.

"A Mothula!" Luka said. "Careful! That thing is very aggressive!"

The Mothula flew back and its yellow eye turned red before it swoops down at the heroes. Toad blocked the attack with mushroom spores, and Link stabbed the Mothula's eye, causing it to screech in pain.

"Hey, try striking its abdomen! That'll do a lot more of damage!" Luka suggested.

The Mothula recovered, and this time it went for a low dive right towards Luigi. Thankfully, upon hearing Luka's suggestion, Luigi did a hammer uppercut at perfect timing to knock the Mothula into the air, allowing Mario to smash its abdomen with his hammer, bringing it down to the ground and breaking quite a lot of its shell.

With the Mothula dazed, Link quickly sliced off its four wings, and now it looked and behaved like a regular Wingless Mothula as it hissed angrily at the heroes. It then made a desperate move… which was spewing out a barrage of Morths at them.

"Oh no…" Link paled as all the Morths immediately clung into our heroes.

"Aaah! T-That…t-tickles!" Yoshi caterwauled.

"Mmghf… GET OFF!" Luka yelled, her anger triggering her volcanic powers as her whole body caught on fire, burning down all of the Morths attached to her. Taking advantage of her active powers, Luka fires a powerful fireball at the fleeing Wingless Mothula, dealing the final blow to it as its body stiffened before going poof along with all the Morths still attached to the rest of the group.

"Phew…" Peach sighed in relief. "Thanks for helping us, Luka."

"You're welcome." Luka replied once she calmed herself down to deactivate her powers as Link went over to a chest and opened it.

"Cool! A boomerang!" he exclaimed. He then used the Boomerang on the two crystals perched above the exit to lift up the barricade and everyone went out.

* * *

***SNAP!* *SNAP!* *SNAP!* *SNAP!* *SNAP!***

The Boomerang easily cut through the vines attached to the ceiling in one of the newest rooms the group went through. Link did the same thing again in the next room with the hanging large flower, letting it fall into the basement floor below. After he and the others got past another room, Link used the Boomerang to cut the vines from a large red hanging flower, and it fell into the water along with everyone else on it. They then rode the flower down the river by blowing gusts of wind with their Deku Leaves, getting rid of some Octoroks in the way.

Once they made it to the next door, thorns rose up in front of it on the other side, trapping the group inside. Taking a quick look around the room, what caught the group's attention the most was a concealed treasure chest in the very middle.

"Let me guess; that chest holds the key to the boss room, right?" Toad guessed.

"Yep." Luka nodded.

"Well, this should be easy enough." Link said upon noticing the crystals perched around the room. He stood on top of the tree in the middle and threw the Boomerang at the crystals, opening up the way to the chest.

But then, right after the heroes got the Big Key, a noise of a Kargoroc suddenly came, and then two Moblins were dropped down from the sky in front of the heroes.

"Oh, great!" Link complained.

"Aw, where's the fun if it was too easy?" Luka smirked as everyone got ready to battle.

Yoshi quickly hit one Moblin in the head with an egg, stunning it as Peach attacked it with a hip drop along with Luka shooting a fireball at it. Mario went for the other Moblin, breaking its wooden spear with a single hammer smash after it used to try to block the attack, and then Toad headbutted it from behind, followed up by Link slicing through it to finish it off. At the same time, Luigi defeated the other Moblin Yoshi, Peach and Luka were handling with a thunderbolt.

With both Moblins defeated, the thorns blocking the door retreated back into the ground, allowing the group to head out.

* * *

_**Some more dungeon navigating later…**_

As the group finally made it to the boss door, Luka stopped them from going in:

"Hold up, guys."

"Eh? What is it, Luka?" Luigi asked.

"Link, could you hand me your empty bottle?"

"Um, okay…" Link hands Luka his bottle. "Why do you need it for?"

"I have… something to do with it. You all go ahead. I'll be right back!" Luka said before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"…Do any of you have an idea about what she's planning?" Link asked, breaking the dead silence between them.

"Beats us." Mario shrugged. "Well, I guess we should do what she told us to do and face the boss until she returns."

Everyone else nodded at that and unlocked the door with the Big Key, keeping their guard up for their next dungeon boss.

The room was wide and circular, with an eerie glow to it. A huge flower with wavy vines was in the center. The heroes looked around in awe.

"Curious…" Toad mused.

"Hey, look!" Yoshi pointed to the flower at the very center, and when everyone looked there, they saw a tiny wooden creature waving its arms while making some squeaky noises. It was the missing Korok, Makar!

"That has to be Makar!" Link beamed.

Just then, before the group could take a single step forward, an odd Boko Baba lookalike suddenly sprouted from behind Makar. Makar didn't notice, but our heroes did.

"Makar, look out!" Link warned, but it was too late: Makar didn't react in time, and was eaten by the plant.

"NO!" the heroes yelled.

The mischievous plant laughed at them before closing itself with the large flower on the ground into a large bulb. Dexivines then sprouted from the tip of the bulb, attaching themselves to the ceiling as it made the flower rise from the ground and be suspended to the air by the ceiling.

"Mama mia…" Luigi trailed.

"Come on, we can't just stand there! We have to save Makar!" Peach ushered as everyone stood ready to fight. The battle against Kalle Demos has begun.

Because Luka wasn't with them to give advices, the heroes found themselves not having a definite idea on how to beat the plant monster, but they knew that the Boomerang Link just obtained would play an important role here. All they needed was to find a way to use it, and when they were still thinking about it, Kalle Demos was starting to lose patience and proceeded to attack the heroes by lashing out its vines at them.

"WAH!" Luigi barely avoided one of the vines heading straight towards him. Thankfully, everyone seemed to avoid being hit by the vines. "We need to think of a way to beat it, and fast!"

"If only Luka was here…" Yoshi frowned.

"Hmm…" Link inspected Kalle Demos all over, looking for a way to use the Boomerang. He then eyed at the Dexivines attached to the ceiling and that gave him an idea. "Of course!"

He aims the Boomerang at the Dexivines and throws it at them, cutting them off easily. He did the same thing until all Dexivines were cut out, and Kalle Demos' shell fell to the floor, its large petals opening up to reveal the plant that has eaten poor Makar.

The heroes got ready to rush to Kalle Demos and give it some good whacking, until…

"WAAAIIIIIIIT!" Luka's voice suddenly came as she appeared in the room within her smoke teleportation powers.

"Luka?! What are you-?" Link began to say, but Luka cut him off by extending her palm in front of him in a 'stop' signal.

"Just watch." she replied before casually walking towards Kalle Demos, who tilted its head in confusion at her.

Once she got closer to it, she took out the Bottle Link passed on to her, which was now filled with a strange teal liquid, poured its content at Kalle Demos… aaaand it was history (yes, I'm serious).

***record scratch***

Kalle Demos' head shot into the air as it cried out in defeat, bouncing on the floor a few times before exploding into purple smoke as Makar came out of it. The rest of the giant flower flapped as it began to have its energy drained before curling up as it turned dry. A windy portal showed up in the very middle of it.

"...Wait, that was IT?!" Link's eyes widened in unbelief as the Mario cast also had the same reaction. "Just what in Hylia's name did you pour at that plant monster?!"

"Two words: Forest Water." Luka casually replied. "I got some from the Forest Haven when I left. Now, how about we go check on Makar?"

"Okay…"

Everyone walked over to Makar, who stood up on his own and looked at them in awe.

"Are you the ones who rescued me?" he asked. The group nodded in response with a smile. "You have my thanks!" he then frowned, "When all went dark around me, I thought my time on the earth was over. But...why are you all here?"

"We were sent by the Great Deku Tree to rescue you." Mario answered.

"What? The Great Deku Tree sent you?! Oh! Th-That's right! Today's the day of our annual ceremony! Oh, I'm in trouble! I shouldn't be here! I must get out of here immediately!"

"We'll come with you." Peach said and then everyone walked into the portal and vanished.

* * *

In an instant, they were all whisked back to the lily pad, which was raised up, in front of the Deku Tree. The Deku Tree noticed Makar with the heroes and spoke,

"Oh, Makar! You have returned safely!"

"I'm sorry, Great Deku Tree…" Makar whined. "I know you warned us many times, but still I did not listen…"

"Do not worry, Makar. You are safe now. Just be more careful from now on." the Deku Tree laughed. He then turned his attention to Link and the others, "You have done well, heroes. I must thank you for your brave deeds."

"Oh, it was nothing…" Link replied sheepishly.

"Here are those which I have promised you. Please accept them."

With that, the Great Deku Tree waved its canopy, and down fell two shiny green objects. One was Farore's Pearl, and the other was the Green Star Piece. Both were now in the heroes' possession!

"Thank you, Great Deku Tree!" the heroes said in unison.

"It is my hope that this pearl and this star piece shall lead all of you to a fair destiny!" the Deku Tree exclaimed. He turned his attention back to Makar, "All is well, Makar. Do not cry. Please… Play your songs for me as you always do."

Makar then cheers up again and began jumping up and down. "Oh, that's right! We must begin our ceremony soon, before the day ends! I'm sorry to keep you all waiting. Let the ceremony begin!" he then pulls out a violin and its bow… somehow. "Oh, great people…" he turned to the heroes. "As my thanks to you, I shall play even harder than I normally do. I hope you enjoy it!"

The heroes smiled as Makar began to play the violin. The tune was very entertaining, easily giving forest vibes and just like with the Deku Tree and the other Koroks, the heroes just couldn't resist swaying from side to side to it. They then looked up at the Koroks who started to sing, and as they did, seeds began to grow from the Great Deku Tree's canopy, much to the group's amazement.

They watched in awe as the seeds fell, and when Makar stopped playing his violin, all of the singing Koroks leapt towards each seed while opening their leaf propellers.

"Great Deku Tree! This year you have once again produced some splendid seeds!" one of the Koroks exclaimed.

"With these seeds, we will continue to spread new forests across the Great Sea."

"Let us go, Koroks! To the sea!"

"See you all next year!"

"Take care!"

"Farewell, great people! May the winds of chance bring us together again someday!"

The Koroks departed out of the Forest Haven as the heroes waved goodbye to them. They were now ready to leave Forest Haven as well, so they gave a nod to the Deku Tree before leaving through the hole.

* * *

"So every year the Deku Tree produces seeds that the Koroks scatter all over the Great Sea? Sounds interesting!" Toad exclaimed as they were making their way down. It was still nighttime.

"It does help give the Great Sea life." Mario said. Everyone then made it back to the King of Red Lions as he spoke:

"Ah, welcome back. Have you gotten your hands on the pearl and the star piece?"

"We did." Peach nodded. "We went through quite a perilous journey to get them, though."

"Hmm… So this place, too, has been attacked by Ganondorf. Could he already be regaining his power?"

"Oh, I sure hope not!" Luigi shuddered as the Mario cast had the same reaction while Luka was just neutral. Link was of course confused.

"Everyone, you must get the remaining pearl and the next star piece! They lie in a place northwest of here. We must set sail immediately!"

"Right on!" Luka nodded. "Link, change the wind direction to northwest!"

"Alright!" Link takes out the Wind Waker and conducts the Wind's Requiem. "Winds! To Northwest!" he directs the baton to said direction, and the winds immediately began to blow northwest.

With that, they all set sail for their next destination, unaware that they were about to go through a change of events…

**To be continued…**

* * *

**I just couldn't resist on adding that cheap (but hilarious) method of killing Kalle Demos in one hit in my story. Only the Zelda expert Luka would do that!**

**What's going to happen next? Find out next time! Please review!**

**EDIT: I didn't realize that I added the fact about the Koroks' evolution twice in a row between chapters as one reviewer pointed out. Whoops! So I finally fixed it!**


	7. The Great Sea is Cursed

**It's been a while, hasn't been? I went through a moment of stress during the end of my second semester of collage, which is why it took me so long...**

**But now that I'm done with it, it's time to get back to this story at last!**

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 7: The Great Sea is Cursed**

The dark night atmosphere around the heroes as they crossed the seas seemed perfectly normal at first, all of them hoping that getting the next pearl and star piece would be a little less complicated than the two previous ones they had gotten.

That is, until, as they were nearing their destination, the sounds of thunder filled the air, soon followed along with lightning strikes. The heroes sighed, knowing that a storm was coming. In an instant, the downpour eventually came, soaking them in this thunderous weather.

"Look, everyone! Do you see it?" the King of Red Lions exclaimed. "…What has happened to this place?" he went silent.

What the King meant by that is that the next island they stumbled upon appears to be… wrecked. Nearly everything about the island, called Greatfish Isle, was literally turned into pieces composed of nothing but small elevations and there was an ominous dark swirling cloud very similar to the one seen back on Dragon Roost Island looming over. Not to mention there's barely any ground to stand on, except for a small piece of shore that Link decked the boat on before he and the others got out.

"Oh dear…" Peach whispered as they all looked around.

"Wh-What is the meaning of this?" the King of Red Lions stuttered. "The island… It is…"

"…Destroyed…" Link finished his sentence.

"No…" Luigi frowned. "Are we too late?"

"I am afraid so." the King of Red Lions lamented. "I knew we had precious little time, but I never suspected how little…"

"So, what was supposed to be on this island?" Yoshi asked.

"A great water spirit named Jabun once lived here, but no sign of him remains…"

Jabun? Didn't that sound pretty similar to Lord Jabu-Jabu, the deity of the Zoras? That's what the Mario cast thought about.

"HO, THERE! LINK!" a voice shouted. The heroes looked behind to see Quill at the distance flying towards the island. He came down in hot and in a hurry as he landed quickly beside the group.

"Quill?" Mario awed.

"So, you're here! I've been looking for you! Are you by chance seeking the great spirit, Jabun?"

"Yes! How did you-?" Link was cut short when Quill interfered:

"I'm sorry to report to you that Jabun can no longer be found here."

"Well, that's unfortunate…" Toad muttered.

"Just look at how this place has been torn to pieces… I suppose this, too, is the work of the shadow in the Forsaken Fortress. But fear not! Jabun was able to flee this island before it was attacked. He is in a safer abode now."

"Oh, what a relief!" Peach smiled, clasping her hands together. "That means we can still get the pearl and the star piece!"

"But where is he right now?" Link asked.

"Would you like to guess where that abode may be?" Quill asked, and the group immediately nodded. Gesturing to Link, he answered, "…On the island where you were born. On Outset."

"Wait… REALLY?!" Link's eyes widened in shock while the Mario cast looked at him in surprise

"Surprise, surprise!" Luka winked.

"How is MY island any safer?! Come on, guys, we have to go NOW!" Link hollered.

"Hold up." Quill stopped. "Yet even if you were to go to Outset now, you would not be able to see Jabun. The cave where he hides is sealed with a mighty stone slab that repels all who try to pass it. Why, not even the pirates with their mighty ship could get in…"

"The pirates?" Link and the Mario cast spoke in unison.

"…I must apologize, guys. I thought if anyone would know of your whereabouts, it would be the pirates. I told them this tale without so much as a thought for the consequences. I don't know what they hoped to get, but they immediately set sail for Outset Island and tried to break into the cave… It is lucky they could not gain entrance."

"That's good for us." Yoshi stated. "Where are they now?"

"I have heard that they were last spotted on Windfall Island, but doing what, I do not know. If you wish to see Jabun, I think you'd better search for the pirates on Windfall Island."

"Well, looks like we have a new destination!" Luka exclaimed.

"Guess we have no other choice…" Mario shrugged.

"What an eerie island this is… Everywhere else boasts clear skies and calm seas, but this place suffers under dark clouds and rain." Quill mused. "Valoo must have been right when he asked me to bring word of Jabun to you… He called this island cursed…"

"C-Cursed?!" Luigi stuttered shakily.

"Easy, bro. I'm sure it's nothing too severe… I hope." Mario said.

"I would counsel against staying here longer than you have to." Quill said. "…But that is your decision. I have told you of Jabun, so my task is complete!" and with that, he took off flying away.

"So, Jabun has survived!" the King of Red Lions exclaimed as the heroes turned to face him. "The sea spirit has lived through the trials of many long years. He must have caught wind of Ganondorf's attack beforehand… If we are to believe the words of the Rito postman, then the pirates know something about the cave where Jabun hides. Why don't we go first to Windfall and search for them there?"

"Right." Link nodded as they all hopped on the boat and began to sail north after conducting the Wind's Requiem.

As they were sailing the seas towards their destination, they soon began to notice that the rain wasn't stopping no matter how far they were from where it started, and that night never seemed to end as the hours passed.

"I'm getting worried about the climate…" Peach trailed. "There's no way it can rain anywhere or having night last longer than usual."

"You're right." Mario nodded. "It's as if… the entire Great Sea is cursed."

"This is the work of Ganondorf, right? That dastardly man…" Luigi murmured.

"Even if I don't know how you guys know so much about Ganondorf, this is a really worrying situation…" Link mused. "_Speaking of worry, I better check on my grandma once we get back to Outset…_" he thought.

"Hopefully we can find any clues at Windfall in order for us to get to Jabun." Yoshi said.

"And also, once we get there, there's something that I want to do over there." Luka added.

"And what is it?" Toad asked.

"I'll tell you when we get there."

Eventually, they finally reached Windfall Island. Of course, the dark skies have also reached this place, and it was still raining; leaving Link and the others soaked. They just couldn't wait to get out of the rain.

"It is just as the postman told us. The pirate ship has stopped here to avoid drawing the attention of the townsfolk…" the King of Red Lions mused, as they had decked at the island's back beach where the pirate ship was. "I know not what they are researching, but if they are hoping to get their hands on Jabun's sacred gem and star piece…"

"Oh yeah… That would be bad…" Yoshi mused.

"I doubt they would tell you all anything directly if you were to ask them. I think you should try to find out what the pirates are up to… without them finding out about you."

They nodded back and took off. Once they were far away from the King of Red Lions, Luka spoke to everyone else:

"Okay, I know exactly where the pirates are right now." she pointed to the building on the island's eastern side. "They're at the Bomb Shop… however, I highly suggest entering it from the highest portion that can be reached from the building's backside." she then turned to Link, "Link, you go there on your own, because I and the others here are going to do some other things here."

"Well, alright." Link shrugged and then he made his way to the Bomb Shop.

"As for all of us… Come with me." Luka said and gestured everyone to follow her.

"Oh boy… What is she up to this time?" Toad wondered before he and the rest followed her to the town's entrance.

* * *

With Link, he had sidled to the shop's backside and climbed up some vines in order to reach the higher level of the shop, where there was a small vent he could enter. He crawled through, and found himself looking down at a high ledge from the shop's interior to see that down below, Tetra and her pirate crew had just tied up a man who was probably the shop's owner.

"Look, don't be mad at us! It's not our fault that we absolutely gotta have bombs to get the treasure we're after!" Mako said, trying to reason with the owner. "How about you just think of it as payback for the nasty little monopoly you've been running here, yeah?"

The owner tried to speak, but his mouth was taped, leading to Mako to laugh at him as he mocked:

"So I bet you're thinking it was foolhardy to ask pirates to pay such an outrageous price, huh? Yup. I bet you are." he turns to Gonzo, "…You know, Gonzo, I still can't get over that bit of fast-talking you pulled to get that information out of the postman!"

"Huh? …Oh! Oh, yeah! That was smooth!" Gonzo exclaimed with pride. "I tell you, the minute I set my eyes on that Link, I just knew he was hiding something back at Outset, yeah? So when I saw that postman, I just pretended like I was all worried about the kid and stuff… And presto! He spills the beans!"

"Good work, Gonzo! Really! Just top notch! It's funny, though… I'm thinking this is maybe the first time you've shown such wit… Such cunning… You know, with your cunning and Miss Tetra's smarts… If you two got married and had a kid… That kid would be the greatest pirate to ever sail the seas! Yup! The greatest!"

It was then that Gonzo blushed at this. "You idiot! Keep your mouth shut, yeah? Don't be so stupid!" he chuckled. "Miss Tetra! Are you listening to this nitwit? Can't you dock him some pay or something?"

"Quit goofing off, both of you!" Tetra retorted with a hint of annoyance, as she was leaning against a wall. "Keep your childish jokes to yourselves, and get those bombs back to the ship! The second you're done loading them up, we're setting sail for Outset Island!"

"Whaaat?!" Gonzo looked at her in disbelief. "Miss! We have to leave immediately? But it's been so long since we were onshore! We need to fill our bellies with some good eating, yeah? How about we grub tonight and shove off tomorrow morning instead?"

Tetra rose an eyebrow, still with a serious expression, leading Gonzo to say, "I mean… Uh, I-I'm fine either way, of course! Whatever you say is fine, Miss, is what I mean to say! …It's just that the boys were so excited to come to town, yeah? And I can't help but think it would be awful hard on them to leave so soon without a proper layover. So, what say we set sail tomorrow, yeah? What do you say, Miss? Those treasures aren't going anywhere!" he then turned to the rest of the crew, who were carrying barrels holding the bombs. "You're with me, right, boys?! Who's for a night of fun?"

Unfortunately, no one said anything in response, much to Gonzo's dismay. Tetra let out a sigh, tired of Gonzo's yapping and spoke up:

"You're all fools, do you know that? You saw that demolished island! You saw the senseless destruction. We have to hurry on to Outset, or the same thing could happen there!"

"Huh?" Mako slowly walked up to Tetra. "Not to be disrespectful, but by the sound of things, you're worried more about that island than the treasures, Miss…"

"Don't be ridiculous! I want, you know… the treasures…"

Tetra then looked up, seeing a portion of Link's head up on the ledge above. Not expecting Tetra to actually do that, Link quickly crawled backwards to hide himself from Tetra, even though it was already too late. Flashing a wink and a smile where Link was, she walked to her crew and declared:

"All right! Fine! Have it your way! We can leave town tomorrow, you big babies. But we're setting sail at first light, so no sleeping in! Understood?"

"Aye, aye!" Tetra's crew exclaimed before they all left the shop with her, but Gonzo and Mako stayed behind for a little bit.

"Say there, brother, what was today's password, again?" Mako asked.

"Mako! Are you serious? You forgot already? You're so useless." Gonzo scoffed. "Today's password is Plankton, yeah? Remember?"

"_Hmm… If I'm going to head into the pirate ship to get the bombs, then I should remember this password._" Link thought.

"You know that Niko won't let you in if you don't say it exactly right!" Gonzo exclaimed. "And he's real picky about it… So I'll say it once more…" he murmured and then said it again, "Today's password is Plankton, yeah?" he then began to leave.

"Plankton, eh?" Mako follows Gonzo, leaving the poor shopowner tied up and with his mouth taped.

* * *

_**Meanwhile, with Luka and the Mario cast…**_

"And THAT'S how you instantly win an auction!" Luka exclaimed as she and the Mario cast had just left the Auction House while carrying a different kind of boat sail. "All of those Rupees we got throughout the two dungeons really payed off, didn't they?"

"Well, yeah, but why did we need to spend all this money for a sail of all things?" Toad questioned.

"Because this is no ordinary sail, you see. This is the Swift Sail, which will not only allow us to travel the seas much faster, but the wind direction will automatically change alongside the direction we're heading to, so we'll no longer need the Wind's Requiem to change the wind direction!"

"Hey, that's actually pretty useful!" Yoshi chimed. "We would never find something like that if you weren't here with us, Luka!"

"Consider yourselves lucky!" Luka winked.

"Now, where to next?" Luigi asked.

"For now, we'll wait for Link to come back. He's probably heading to the pirate ship right now to get the bombs."

"Alright, but let's at least find some shelter for us." Mario said.

"Oh yes, please." Peach nodded. "After all, my parasol is used to shield me from the sun, not from rain."

"Then how about the place where we docked the King of Red Lions? I believe there's enough cover for us there." Luka stated and then they all went down to the island's back beach to wait for Link. In the meantime, Luka decided to install the Swift Sail on the King instantly, replacing his old sail with a brand new one.

* * *

_**Later, back with Link…**_

"What?! You've gotta be… You did it already?!" Niko exclaimed surprised once Link had cleared his newest obstacle course. "You're… You're incredible!" he then began to murmur, "This isn't good… I've never even passed this test… How could he do it so quickly…? And make it look so easy?! And if I give this to him, everyone will know for sure… Oh, I'll be so busted…"

"So, are you giving me the bombs or what?" Link asked rather impatiently.

"Uh…OK! You're the best swabbie of all time! So…I guess I'll just give you the bombs! Go on! Take 'em!" Niko stepped aside to reveal a treasure chest that was behind him. "Just don't tell anyone, OK? I'm serious! Really serious! OK? OK!?"

"Um, okay…" Link replied and then walked up to the chest to open it, taking out a bag of Bombs. "Perfect." he smirked… and then Tetra's voice suddenly echoed around them:

"_That's mighty courageous of you…trying to steal treasure from pirates."_

Remembering about the Pirate's Charm, Link quickly pulled it out of his pocket and heard Tetra speaking again, much to Niko's surprise.

"_I suppose I should be shocked…but I'm more amazed that you managed to survive after being tossed out of that tower…"_

"Oh… so you saw it?" Link asked.

"_Obviously! Hmm… From the look on your face, I have to guess you haven't saved your sister yet, huh?"_

"No, but…"

"_You don't give things much thought, do you? You just rush in, never thinking how badly things could go for you."_

"Yeah… I guess I was a bit reckless…"

"_Like just now… The only reason you got what you did was because we left a simpleminded little rat like Niko behind to look after things. No one else would have parted with our treasure so easily, I assure you! And just how do you intend to use those bombs, anyway? Don't tell me you're going after Jabun's treasures, too…"_

"Yup."

"_I should've known… Right now, Jabun is hiding in a cave at the back of the island you were born on. But the entrance is blocked by a giant stone doorway. You can't get in without breaking down the door."_

"_I knew that already…_" Link thought, rolling his eyes.

"_We're going to relax in town and eat our fill of whatever this town has to offer, but we'll be leaving for Outset first thing in the morning. If you manage to find Jabun tonight, then I guess you win. But if you take too long, we'll come sailing right by you tomorrow morning! And believe me, you didn't get ALL of our bombs. You'd better be quick, kid!"_

The call then ends, so Link immediately leaves the pirate ship, leaving behind a thoughtful Niko inside. Once outside in the rain, Link made his way back to the King, where he also found the others.

"Ah, you're here too." Link said. "So, what were you doing?"

"Nothing much, we just won an auction to get a new upgraded sail." Toad simply responded.

"…Okay, then?" Link tilted his head, but decided to focus on the task. "Then I guess we're all set to go." everyone boarded the King of Red Lions. "By the way, Tetra told me that she and her pirate crew won't be leaving until morning."

"So that means we must meet with Jabun and get the pearl and the star piece from him before they arrive." the King of Red Lions stated. "Let us delay no longer, everyone!"

"Right!" everyone else nodded as Link then set up the sail.

Because the Swift Sail was installed in place of the old sail, Link was surprised to see that their boat was now moving faster than usual.

"Is it just me, or are we sailing a lot faster now?" he wondered.

"Yep, we are sailing faster." Luka nodded. "The new sail we got was a Swift Sail." she then explained to Link what it does.

"Oh, I see! This really does come in handy!" Link exclaimed. "We'll reach my home island in no time!"

* * *

_**Soon…**_

The heroes finally arrived at Outset Island. Due to the curse, it was still nighttime and raining, which wasn't too surprising for them.

"Your suspicions were right all along, it seems." the King of Red Lions told them. "Morning has not broken since we arrived at Greatfish Isle – the land that was so ravaged by monsters. It is as if time itself is frozen. Perhaps this _is _the curse that Valoo spoke of."

"It has to be." Luigi nodded.

"Whatever the reason, if this night does not end, then we need not worry about the pirates overtaking us." he then turned to Link, "In fact, it might not be a bad idea for you to visit your hometown and family again after such a long time away."

"_I was going to do that, anyways._" Link thought.

"We can speak with Jabun after you do."

They nodded back, and began to walk around the island.

"So this is where you live, Link?" Peach asked.

"Yes." Link nodded with a small smile. "Though I wish it was daytime so you could see how nice and peaceful this island is."

"It doesn't matter that much." Yoshi shook his head. "What matters is that we finally got to see your home!"

"Yeah, true…" Link then led them to his house. "This is my house." he said, but then felt a bit hesitant about opening the door. "Somehow… I'm a little nervous about going in…"

"Hey, don't be afraid." Mario spoke up. "You're brave. You can do it."

Link took a deep breath. "Alright, here goes…" he opens the door.

"Ohhh… Uhnnn…" suddenly, he and the others heard moans as soon as they got inside. "Link… Aryll… Don't go… Don't leave… Uhhnnn… Don't leave your poor old grandma… all alone… Uhnnn… Uhhhnnn…" they belonged to Link's grandma, who unfortunately wasn't feeling so well.

"Grandma… Oh no…" Link gasped silently as he walked over to his grandma while having a look that's a mixture of sadness and shame; he never imagined that he would leave his grandma all by herself for so long than he had thought. "I'm so sorry…" he lamented, softly gripping one of her hands.

The Mario cast and Luka stopped next to him, all having pitiful looks on their faces as Peach placed a comforting hand on Link's shoulder.

"We're really sorry to see all this…" she whispered.

"How are we going to cure her…?" Link asked.

"Well, good thing I filled that bottle with some Red Potion!" Luka takes out the bottle filled with Red Potion and hands it to Link. "Have her drink this, Link. I'm sure she'll be instantly cured."

Link accepted the potion and opened its cork. "Here, grandma. Drink this." he brought the bottle close to his grandma's mouth as she slowly drank the liquid.

In an instant, Link's grandma felt her strength returning as she began to move and open her eyes, which were closed before she drank the potion, as Link and the others stepped back a bit with surprised looks.

"Ohh, Link? Is that you, Link?" Link's grandma awed.

A bright smile formed up on Link's face. "Grandma!" he ran over to her and hugged her as she returned it while Luka and the Mario cast watched this heartwarming reunion with soft smiles. "I'm so happy you're feeling well!"

"And Grandma is always happy to see your bright, shining face." Link's grandma smiled. "Link… My dear, sweet Link. You're safe… That's wonderful… Just wonderful." she then noticed the new people behind her grandson. "Oh! I see you made yourself some new friends, too!"

"Yes, I did. In fact, one of them was the one who cured you." Link directed to Luka.

"Did you do this? Did you heal me?" Link's grandma asked as Luka nodded. "Oh, you're such a sweet child… And same to all of you who definitely watched over my dear grandson!"

"It was nothing." Luka replied.

It was then that something hit Link's grandma, "Ohh… That's right…" she turned to her grandson. "You and your sister, Aryll, are trying so hard to be strong, and I've just been sitting here, moaning and worrying… I'm your grandmother… As much as I appreciate your new friends taking care of you, I'm actually the one who should be doing this…" she hung her head in shame. "I'm so sorry, Link. I haven't even considered what you must be going through. I'm a terrible grandma…"

"No, you aren't." Link shook his head with a smile. "You are the greatest grandma I've ever had."

"Oh, thank you, Link…" Link's grandma smiled again. "Hey… Could you hand me your empty bottle?" Link did so and watched his grandma scoop up something from a hanging pot in the fireplace next to her. "Link, this is all I have to give you right now." she hands him the bottle back containing special Elixir Soup!

"Wow! Thanks a lot, grandma!" Link chimed.

"You and your sister love this soup, don't you? If you run out, I can make it for you anytime you like. Grandma's going to try to be strong, so you try to be strong, too!"

"You bet I will!" Link had a wide smile on his face.

"But don't do anything reckless!" Link's grandma warned, and then faced Luka and the Mario cast. "Would you kindly watch over my grandson as always for me?"

"You can leave it to us!" Peach nodded. "It was nice meeting you."

They all waved goodbye to Link's grandma before they left the house.

"Your grandmother is such a sweet person, Link." Peach smiled as they made their way back to the King of Red Lions.

"Heheh, thanks…" Link chuckled in embarrassment. "Well, I guess we're all done here."

"Then are you ready to see Jabun now?" Toad asked.

"Yup. Let's do this."

Once they made it back to the King and let him know they were ready, he then spoke:

"If that is the case, then we must search for the cave around the back side of Outset where Jabun is said to hide."

They hopped on and began to sail to the island's backside, where they immediately found a wall made out of stone blocking the entrance to a cave, so they figured that this was it.

However, this task wasn't going to be made easy for our heroes because as soon as they approached the stone wall, they suddenly found themselves riding a whirlpool.

"Ack! What's this?!" Luigi yelped. "Are we on a whirlpool?!"

"It look like Jabun has created a source of defense!" the King of Red Lions reported. "Link! Try to aim the bombs well!"

"Got it!" Link then proceeded to blast the wall with the bombs he got throughout the boat's cannon.

***POW!* *BOOM!* *POW!* *BOOM!* *POW!* *BOOM!* **

Eventually, the whole wall was brought down, and the secret cave was revealed.

"YES!" Link cheered.

"You did it, Link!" Yoshi praised.

"Nothing can stand in our way!" Luka exclaimed. "Now, how about we go see Jabun?"

Everyone else immediately nodded and then sailed the boat into the cave.

The interior of the cave was much wider than it was on the outside, as the walls were flickering with lights that were reflected from the clear blue waters.

"Whoa…" Link breathed as he and the others looked around in awe.

"This place is way bigger on the inside!" Toad exclaimed. "But… Where's Jabun?"

The King of Red Lions looked down into the water, seeing a faint light bulb below. "He's coming right now. Brace yourselves."

The water in front of them suddenly shot up into the air, and then a giant fish carrying a lantern on its antenna came out. The heroes looked up at it in surprise, even if they assumed that this was Jabun. The Mario cast, however, noticed that Jabun did bear a strong resemblance to Lord Jabu-Jabu they had met in their previous adventure.

"(Well met, King of Red Lions.)" Jabun spoke in the same strange language that Valoo and the Deku Tree spoke, so of course, Link and the others didn't understand what he just said.

"Well met indeed, Jabun." the King of Red Lions, however, was able to understand that strange language to the others' surprise. "I am pleased to see that you are safe…"

"(The events we all feared seem to have been set in motion.)"

"Yes. It seems Ganondorf has returned. There can be no other explanation."

"(If you have sought me out, it must mean you have found the Legendary Hero and the Six Sages, does it not?)"

"Unfortunately, that is not so."

"(Then for what purpose have you come to see me?)"

"The ones I have brought with me has no connection to the legendary ones. And yet I sense great promise in the courage and willingness that these ones possess."

"(Promise? You suggest that I leave the fate of the world up to mere chance?!)"

"I do. It is the only way."

"(I see… then I suppose it is up to the gods to deem whether their courage and willingness are true. I give you the guideposts to the gods!)"

With that, Jabun shakes his antenna as the lantern rocketed back and forth before a blue pearl and a blue star piece came out, both falling into the heroes' hands. Nayru's Pearl and the Blue Star Piece are now in their possession.

"Thank you, Jabun." the King of Red Lions nodded while Link and the others gave a bow.

"(This jewel and star piece should dispel the curse Ganondorf has cast upon this land.)"

"So…that foul rain and endless night were indeed elements of a curse brought on us by Ganondorf! He must intend to cast this land into pure darkness for all time…"

"(Tell me, King of Red Lions… have you learned the whereabouts of the one who carries on the bloodline, the princess, Zelda?)"

"…I believe I have."

"(That is well… you must protect Zelda! She cannot be permitted to fall into the hands of Ganondorf! I am counting on you!)" Having said those words, Jabun dove back down into the water as the boat left the cave.

**To be continued…**

* * *

**Since I was considering on bringing elements from the game's HD version as well, it wouldn't hurt to add in the Swift Sail, right?**

**Next up, the Tower of the Gods! See you next time!**


	8. The Tower of the Gods

**Phew, this one took a while! But it's done!**

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 8: The Tower of the Gods**

"Ganondorf's curse has been broken by the power of the pearl and star piece that Jabun gave us, so morning should come soon." the King of Red Lions spoke to the heroes. "It is well that we have gathered all of the pearls."

"What about the star pieces?" Link asked.

"There are still more star pieces remaining, but let's not worry about them right now."

"If you say so…"

"So, what do we do now?" Peach asked.

"I have marked the places where you must set the pearls on your Sea Chart. Once you have placed each of the pearls in its proper location, the proving grounds for your courage and willingness will become apparent. Clearly, the search for Jabun has shown that Ganondorf has begun to make efforts to block our path forward. It is certain that the perils ahead will be greater than any of you have faced thus far."

"Oh, I'm sure we can handle these perils just fine, right?" Luka smirked to the group.

"Yeah!" the rest exclaimed.

"Then let's go and set those pearls!"

By zipping around the seas thanks to the Swift Sail's fast travel, the heroes placed the first two pearls on the statues at Northern Triangle Island, where Din's Pearl was placed, and Southern Triangle Island, where Nayru's Pearl was placed. For the last one, Farore's Pearl, they went to Eastern Triangle Island.

Once Link placed the last pearl on the statue, whose eyes region was constantly flashing green, while the others waited for him on the boat, nothing seemed to be happening at first.

As Link kept staring at the statue, beams of light suddenly sprouted from it as Link yelped in surprise and jumped down… only for the lights to die down. Bewildered, Link looked back at the statue and climbed back up to it.

"Oh, here comes my favorite part~!" Luka exclaimed quietly with anticipation, as she knew exactly what was going to happen next. The Mario cast heard her and looked at her with confused looks.

"What favorite part?" Toad whispered.

"Just so you wait." Luka directed back to Link, who had approached the statue again and leaned closer to it. "_Three… Two… ONE…!_"

***KABOOOOOOOOOM!***

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" the statue suddenly blows up, and poor Link was caught by the blast as he was sent flying away while screaming. The Mario cast looked up at him in shock… while Luka was bursting out laughing:

"Pfffffft… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" she spluttered. "MAN, how I _love_ this part!"

"…_I'll never understand that girl's sense of humor…_" the King of Red Lions thought.

From the statue's explosion, a green ethereal figure meant to represent Farore held up her pearl before a beam of green light shot out of it, traveling all the way to Southern Triangle Island as it struck the statue on it. A blue ethereal figure of Nayru showed up and did the same thing as Farore did, and her blue beam of light zoomed towards Northern Triangle Island, blowing up the statue to reveal a red ethereal figure of Din. Finally, Din's red beam of light went all the way back to Eastern Triangle Island, and all three beams were connected.

The connection of the beams together created the shape of the iconic Triforce before it spun to create another heavenly light in its place at the very middle of where the Triangle Islands were. From this light, a towering structure began to rise up, as the Mario cast watched in awe due to how tall it was.

"Woooow…" Peach whispered.

"Wooowie zoowie…" Luigi's eyes widened. "Are we going to climb all that…?"

"Yep." Luka nodded.

"Where is Link, by the way?" Toad wondered.

"Hey! I see him! Over there!" Yoshi pointed to where Link was, as the young hero was surprisingly still flying. "He's heading straight… to the tower…?" he blinked once he took notice of where Link was heading to.

"Oh, not that again…" Mario trailed, remembering back about Link faceplanting on the wall at the Forsaken Fortress.

***SPLAT!***

For the second time, Link faceplants straight into a wall, this time on the still-rising tower, before falling all the way down to the water. Once the tower finally stopped rising, the King of Red Lions and the others made their way to where Link landed, and he climbed on, before looking up at the massive tower, known as the Tower of the Gods, in front of him.

"It's so tall…" he breathed.

"Everyone, your trial awaits." the King of Red Lions said. "This tower, which the pearls of the gods have caused to appear, is a place that the gods of the ancient world prepared so that they might test the courage of men and the willingness of the destined. Only those who are able to overcome the trials that await here will be acknowledged by the gods to be a true hero and true destined people. Only then will that hero be permitted to wield the power to destroy the great evil."

"_So that means I'll finally be able to defeat that Ganondorf and save my sister?_" Link thought.

"Link, that which you must obtain now lies before you! And the rest of you, your willingness to protect and lend your power to the hero is about to be put into test! You all must believe in your courage and willingness, which has led you to triumph over the many hardships you have faced…and you must triumph once again! You must rise above the trial of the gods!"

Link and the others nodded, ready to face the trials up ahead as they guided the boat to the interior of the tower.

* * *

The Tower of the Gods is a sacred tall structure that the gods built in order to test the courage of men, where only one can be considered a true hero like the ancient Hero of Time. Most of the interior was flooded with water as it was coming out of a statue that stood in front of the heroes, the level going up and down periodically. The walls and columns were made out of stone with some golden details on them.

"Hmm… it looks like we must find a way to get rid of that water pouring out of that." Mario stated, pointing at the statue. "I just know there's something from behind that."

"Right." Link nodded. "I'm seeing a few platforms over there, so we'll start there first." he steered the boat to the rightmost corner of the room, while having to deal with the water level constantly rising and lowering. "Sheesh, what's wrong with the water level?" he questioned.

"We have no idea." Toad shrugged. "Hey look, there's two available platforms on both sides." he noted.

"Sooo… We're splitting up?" Luigi guessed.

"Yup." Luka nodded. "Even though there's seven of us, I suggest having lesser people going to the room on the bottom right corner."

"Then that means three of us will go there, while the remaining four will head to that one." Mario said before they all started deciding the groups. In the end, Link, Peach and Yoshi opted to go to the bottom right room, whereas Mario, Luigi, Toad and Luka went to the upper right room.

First starting with the group of three, the door led them to a room with three boxes, there was a chest on the other side… and some Yellow Chuchus. Before the group could wonder what to do with those boxes, the water level rose up again, and they noticed that the boxes rose up as well, floating into the water's surface.

"Oh, I see it now! We can move those boxes in order to create a bridge to the other side!" Yoshi pointed out.

"Hey, that could work!" Link replied. "But we have to wait for the water level to go down again."

When the water went down again, the group proceeded to push and pull each of the boxes in a position where a bridge would form. However, Link was unaware of one of the Yellow Chuchus heading towards him as Peach noticed that.

"Link, look out!" she called out, but too late; the Yellow Chuchu leaps onto Link, electrocuting him in the process.

"YOOOOOOW!" he yelled before getting thrown back.

"Ooh, that looked painful…" Yoshi winced, and then he tossed an egg at the Yellow Chuchu to defeat it.

"Uh oh, I can see more of them!" Peach pointed to the two remaining Yellow Chuchus in the room.

"I got them!" Yoshi tossed more eggs at the Yellow Chuchus, and soon the room was cleared out of Chuchus.

"Thank goodness…" Peach sighed and then she went over to Link. "Are you okay?"

"Never… better…" Link groaned before shaking it off.

With that, the trio focused back on moving the boxes until they were perfectly aligned with each other. The trio climbed on the first box as soon as the water rose back up and hopped to the other boxes to reach the other side that had a treasure chest. They opened it, taking out the Dungeon Map.

"…Not exactly what I had in mind, but at least it will help us navigate around the dungeon." Link remarked… and then they heard plopping noises as even more Yellow Chuchus suddenly dropped down from the ceiling. "Oh great, more of these guys…" he grumbled in annoyance.

* * *

_**With the other group…**_

"Whoa…" Luigi awed as they just placed a box on a glowing switch to make a rainbow-colored bridge of light appear from above the gap they were in.

"This is basically the main concept of the dungeon, light bridges." Luka informed. "They may be made out of pure light, but they're actually solid, so we can walk through them."

"Well, that's good to know." Toad said as they climbed back up and crossed the bridge to the other side, where there was some sort of statue at the end.

"I believe this statue is important." Mario inspected. "It doesn't appear to be attached to the floor, so that means we can carry it around." with that said, he picks up the statue and holds it above his head.

But when they turned around in order to cross the bridge again, the water level rose back up, causing the boxes to float up and the bridge to disappear.

"Oh, come on…" Toad muttered.

"Yeah, even I found this water level rising and lowering to be a little annoying…" Luka admitted. "_Still less annoying than the entire Water Temple, though._" she thought as they waited for the water to go back down, and once it did, they crossed the reappeared bridge and went back to the main room of the dungeon.

There, Luka directed the others to the portion where there was a hole on the ground, so Mario went over and placed the statue into it. The statue emitted a blue light, and eventually, a gate on the further right portion of the room lowered down, granting access to the other side.

"That takes care of it." Luka said. "Now let's go meet with the other group."

They hopped on the boat and went to the bottommost room, where they met with Link, Yoshi and Peach… but they were covered in soot and Link and Peach had a few strands of their hair sticking up.

"Uhh… What happened to you?" Toad blinked.

"Yellow… Chuchus…" Link groaned, before also coughing out smoke.

"Oh… It's the electric variant of the Chuchu family." Luka explained.

"Yikes…" Luigi trailed. "So, what did you find in that room?"

"The map." Yoshi showed it to them.

"Well, now we know the full layout of this temple." Mario spoke up.

Soon, the group cruised to the newly opened area, where they stopped at a platform and placed two Armos statues on the glowing switches in order to open the door.

The next room had many boxes scattered around, and on the other side were two torches. Link looked to the side and saw some Deku Sticks in a pot, so he thought of using one of the sticks to light the torches on the other side by using the fire from the lit torches on his side.

But as soon as he lit the Deku Stick, he saw that Mario had already made it to the other side and just lit the torches by throwing a fireball at them, causing a treasure chest to appear that held a Small Key. Link was left with his mouth agape.

"There was no need to do that! You have friends with powers!" Luka said to him with a teasing wink as they waited for Mario to get back before exiting the room.

"_They can make all things in the dungeons so easy…_" Link thought before snapping out of his shocked trance and quickly followed the others.

Back to the main room, they sailed all the way to the left, where cracked walls stood at the end. Loading the boat's cannon, Link blasted the walls with bombs, revealing more of the area to them. They got out of the boat and swam to the stairs, and then another Yellow Chuchu showed up to greet them.

"Not a chance." Link sternly said, having had enough of Yellow Chuchus as he tossed his Boomerang at it before slashing through it. At this point, the water level dropped down, revealing a locked door down the stairs, but there was still a door on the level our heroes were on.

"So… which door we should go first?" Yoshi asked.

"Let's go for this one first." Luka directed to the door right in front of them. "There's an important item for us to get there."

The others nodded and went through said door, which only had a treasure chest and a Red Bubble. They took care of the Red Bubble first before going for the chest, pulling out a Compass. After that, they left the room and immediately went down the stairs, dealing with another Yellow Chuchu before unlocking the door.

Even more Yellow Chuchus showed up as soon as the heroes went into the next room. Groaning in annoyance, they quickly dispatched all of them, and that caused a stairway made of light to appear, leading to the statue above. They went up these stairs and Link picked up the statue before they all left the room.

By placing the statue into another hole that was next to the door from above, it emitted a purple light as the mouth of the statue that was pouring water eventually closes, revealing a passageway underneath it.

"Mario was right; there _was_ something behind that statue being obscured by the water!" Peach exclaimed.

"I had a sneaking suspicion about that." Mario replied sheepishly and then they made their way to the new passageway and went through the door.

There was a Beamos statue at the center of the new room and three glowing switches behind it. Since they were already in large numbers, the heroes just made their way around the Beamos, avoiding its laser and then three of them stepped on the switches to activate the moving platforms from behind.

Going through another door, they found themselves in a circular room, where several frowning statues with horns sticking out of their heads circled an altar at the center. At that altar, there was a stone monument that caught everyone's attention, so they went up to it and checked it.

"These markings…" Link mused. "Could this be… a new melody for the Wind Waker?"

"You guessed it right!" Luka nodded. "Go ahead and take out the Wind Waker and conduct left, center, right, and center again!"

Link did just that, pulling out the Wind Waker and conducting it in the directions shown at the monument. Upon learning the new song, the Command Melody, all of the three blocked doors in the room opened up.

"Congratulations! You just learned the Command Melody!" Luka exclaimed. "With this, you're able to control all sorts of objects not unlike how Mario will one day do the same with a possessed hat!"

"Uh, what?" Mario raised an eyebrow as everyone looked back at Luka with weird looks.

"…Forget what I said at the last sentence!" Luka dismissed nervously while erratically waving her hands in front of her. The others then shrugged it off before Link spoke:

"Three available doors… I believe we should split up again, but I'm not sure what we have to do…"

"I can inform you on that." Luka interfered. "We need to bring three statues, each of them lying somewhere at the other side of these doors. Once all of the statues are brought back to this room, the path to this dungeon's boss will open."

"Got it. Now let's see…" Link pondered, thinking about who's going to which door. After some seconds of thinking, he eventually decided, "Okay, so Luigi, Toad and I will go to the door on the left, Peach and Luka will head to the door on the middle, and Mario and Yoshi will take the door on the right."

With the new groups decided, they all split up and went into their respective doors.

* * *

_**With Mario and Yoshi…**_

They took care of even more Yellow Chuchus in the room, both before and after crossing to the other side with the help of a moving platform, and then they went into another room, where they saw a large light platform hovering over a very narrow and twisted pathway.

The duo used the platform to get to the other side, which had a pillar with a statue at the very top of it. The pillar was way too high up for the two to reach up to the statue. That is, until Mario noticed a tablet standing beside the pillar as he went over to read it.

"Seeker of the goddesses' guidepost… Call me and guide me to my place of truth." he read. "…Call who?"

"Hmm… Maybe the statue?" Yoshi guessed with a shrug.

"I guess so… But how do we call it?"

"Uhh, I dunno… Come on! …Or something?"

Just then, as soon as the words of 'Come on!' left Yoshi's mouth, the pillar and the statue began to glow as the former began to descent, much to the duo's surprise.

"Oh… It actually worked!" Yoshi exclaimed.

"Odd…" Mario mused… and then they nearly jumped when the statue suddenly began to move on its own towards them. "Whoa!"

"Hey, that's so cool!" Yoshi chimed. "Luka said that we need to bring it back to the circular room, right?"

"Yes, but we have to careful in guiding it back, especially with this narrow path."

With that, they began to slowly guide the statue around the path, making their way back to the circular room to hopefully meet back with the others.

* * *

_**With Link, Luigi and Toad…**_

"There it is!" Toad pointed to the statue they found up ahead. They made their way to it by Link swinging above a ravine with the Grappling Hook while Toad conjured up a mushroom for him and Luigi to launch themselves off to the other side.

As soon as they approached the pillar, Link called out to the statue to make the pillar it was standing on descent. However, the trio realized that there was no way they could cross the large ravine by just throwing the statue across.

"Um, how are we going to get the statue to the other side?" Link wondered.

"Hold on, there's a switch right here." Luigi said and went over to step on it, causing a light bridge to appear. "Oh!"

"There's a problem, though." Toad interfered. "My mushroom conjuring magic has very limited range, so once I and Link cross to the other side with the statue, you'll be left stuck in this side, Luigi."

"Well, that's just great…" Luigi muttered.

Link then remembered about Luka explaining what the Command Melody does, and, looking back at the statue, he thought, "_Unless…_" knowing exactly what to do, he told Luigi, "Luigi, keep standing on the switch. I know just what to do."

"Really?" Luigi and Toad replied in unison, and then watched Link taking out the Wind Waker and conducting the Command Melody.

Through Link's point of view, he suddenly felt weird as his mind literally shifted to the statue, and he now _was _the statue itself!

"_Whoa… weird…_" he thought as he used what strength the statue's body had to cross the light bridge as Luigi and Toad watched all that with eyes open wide. As soon as the statue was at the other side, Link somehow managed to shift his mind back to his own body again.

"Link, what did you just do?" Toad asked. "How did you get the statue to the other side?"

"I used the Command Melody to take control of it and then I made it walk to the other side." Link answered.

"Wait, you actually possessed the statue?! Golly, that's a bit… freaky." Luigi commented.

"Yeah, I know." Link replied while rubbing the back of his head before they made it back to the other side using the same methods as before.

Before heading back to the circular room, however, the trio got curious about the locked door on another side of the room, so they placed the statue on the nearby glowing switch to unlock the bars blocking the door and then they went in.

They found themselves in a circular arena-like room, where a massive armored figure holding up a sword facing them on the broad side stood in the center. Seeing that there were intruders in the room, the figure, being none other than a Darknut, suddenly started to move, his eyes angrily focused on the trio as he roared at them and swung his sword in front of him a few times before taking a battle stance.

"Uh oh…" Luigi gulped.

"Looks like we got ourselves a battle." Link spoke with a serious expression, drawing out his sword and shield. "We're locked in, so we have no other choice!"

"You said it right!" Toad exclaimed.

Link began by immediately rushing towards the Darknut and jumping in the air. "HIYAAH!" he yelled as he swung his sword down, but the Darknut clashed his sword with the hero before they both fought for control.

Link was trying to at least equal the Darknut in strength, but he was too strong for a kid like him, so he jumped back and spun his sword in a circle, hitting the Darknut's sword. It wasn't enough to knock the sword out of the Darknut's hand as he merely just shrugged it off and swung it back at Link, knocking the poor kid away.

"Link!" Luigi cried. "Toad, we've got to do something!"

"Hmm…" Toad pondered as Link sprung back up and clashed with the Darknut again. "_His armor is definitely made out of metal, and metal conducts electricity… That's it!_" he turned to Luigi, "Luigi, use your thunder powers to stun that beast!"

"Oh, of course!" Luigi replied and used his Thunderhand powers as a lightning bold struck the Darknut, paralyzing him in place as Link looked at it in surprise.

"Now, let's see…" Toad then rushes to the stunned Darknut's back, and saw that his armor was strapped to his back by ropes. "Aha!" Toad exclaimed, taking out an axe and using it to chop off the ropes, removing the armor covering the Darknut's torso. "He's vulnerable now, Link! Strike him!"

The hero did just that, landing his first clean hit on the Darknut as he snapped out of his paralyzed state. The Darknut, now mad, tried to swing his sword at Link, only for him to jump up and knock off the Darknut's helmet, revealing a dog-shaped head underneath it.

With the Darknut completely exposed and vulnerable to almost all attacks, Link took this advantage to land a few more blows on him until he finally collapsed to the ground while roaring in agony before exploding for good.

"Phew… that takes care of it." Link sighed. "Thanks for your help, guys."

"No problem!" Luigi replied.

Then, a treasure chest appeared in the middle. Link went over to it and opened it up, taking out the Hero's Bow with a few Arrows.

"Oh, neat!" he exclaimed.

"The bow and arrows, huh?" Toad smirked. "These will definitely help us out!"

"You bet they will!" Luigi nodded. "Now let's get back to that circular room with the statue."

* * *

_**Later…**_

At the circular room, Mario and Yoshi were the first ones to come in, and they watched the statue they brought along make its way to its respective pedestal.

"That's one statue down." Mario said. "We'll just have to wait for the others now."

"Hopefully they're doing alright." Yoshi hoped.

Soon, the trio of Link, Luigi and Toad were next to come back, and their statue moved towards its pedestal before they saw Mario and Yoshi on the other side.

"Big bro! Yoshi!" Luigi called out as he and the rest rushed over to the duo.

"Guys! You're back!" Yoshi chirped. "How did it go for you?"

"Nothing much, we just saw Link using the new melody he just learned and we all fought a big armored guy." Toad summed it up.

"I also got these!" Link showed the bow and arrows.

"Neat! You got yourself a bow and arrow!" Mario exclaimed. "_He feels more like the Hero of Time now!_" he thought.

"And now we just have to wait for Peach and Luka." Link said.

They waited for a few minutes, but the girls still didn't show up.

"Sheesh, what's taking them so long?" Toad asked.

"Should we go check on them?" Luigi suggested.

"Maybe we should." Mario agreed.

But the moment they were about to head to where the girls went, the door suddenly opened up and Peach and Luka came out as their statue began to move to its pedestal.

"Hi, boys!" Peach waved. "Sorry we took so long… There were tons of puzzles, enemies, and all sorts of shenanigans on the door we went into."

"But hey, at least we did it!" Luka winked before she and Peach high-fived.

With that, all three statues were back at their respective places as they all shot a beam of green light from their chests, creating a column of light in the altar. Looking at each other in determination, the heroes stepped into the light, letting it carry them to the third floor of the dungeon.

Once there, they found a wall of lasers blocking a chest from behind and there were three glowing switches in front, so three of the heroes went to step on them. This deactivated the lasers and then Link went over to the chest to grab the Big Key. Now they were ready to face the boss of this dungeon.

They went through the door that took them outside. A staircase was on their left, so they wasted no time in heading up… except that the entire stairway was being guarded by LOTS of Beamos. In a panic, the heroes made a mad dash all the way up to the Boss Door, barely avoiding the lasers from the robots or getting their clothes slightly burned. After they rested for a bit to regain their lost breath during the rush, they inserted the Big Key at the door's lock. The door opened up and they all went inside.

The Boss Room had an air of holiness in it, as there was a faint blue light lightening it entirely. Link and the others gazed around before shifting their focus on the large carvings pressed against the wall up ahead, and once they reached the center portion of the room, a strange disembodied voice spoke up:

_You have done well to find your way to this place. Oh, chosen ones… Accept this final challenge…_

Just then, blue light illuminated the carvings from the hands and the head, with the addition of glowing green eyes on the hands and red eyes for the head, and all three of them detached themselves out from the wall to float above the heroic group as the boss Gohdan.

"Okay, so what should we do, Luka?" Link asked.

"You need to shoot an arrow at the eyes on its hands first!" Luka instructed, but then she saw the two hands going down on either side of the arena and closing in together as she gasped in alarm. "MOVE!" she yelled, and everyone quickly moved out of the way before they were squished by the hands.

"That was close…" Luigi trailed.

"Alright, time to shoot those hands!" Link took aim with the bow and shot the first arrow at the right hand's eye. "Got one!"

It was then that the right hand closed itself into a fist and attempted to slam down at Link as he was trying to focus of the left hand.

"AHH!" thankfully, Link noticed that in time and quickly ran out of the way. "Phew…" But when he went to focus back at the left hand, it responded by going down to Link's level and attempt to sweep him off the arena. "Whoooooaaa!" he yelled and rolled away to avoid being swept off in time. "Urgh… Hold still!"

With Luka and the Mario cast, they watched worriedly as Link was having trouble aiming for the left hand as it just wouldn't stop moving. Then, Toad had an idea:

"Hey, Luigi! Why don't you stun it?"

"Oh! Okey-dokey!" Luigi nodded and casted lightning at the left hand, stunning it in place. This gave a great opportunity for Link to aim at Gohdan's left hand after the attack and successfully strike its eye.

With that, both of Gohdan's hands exploded and only the head remained as its red eyes revealed themselves.

"Now all we have to do is to aim at its red eyes!" Luka hollered.

"That's all?" Mario questioned. "Too easy."

Immediately after this, Gohdan's mouth opened up before firing explosive projectiles at them as they yelped in shock and tried their best to avoid them. Unfortunately, Link was caught by one of the projectiles' explosions and that caused him to fall down to the electrified border below the arena.

"YOWOWOWOWOW!" he yelled as he was being electrocuted.

"OH NO! LINK!" Peach cried as Link quickly climbed out from the border, but he felt stings from all over his body. "Here, let me heal you!" she rushed over to him and started to tend to his injuries with her healing spell.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group saw that Gohdan still had its mouth open, and much to their horror, it began to charge up a stronger version of its explosive projectiles.

"Quick! Someone throw some sort of bomb into its mouth!" Luka demanded.

"I'll do it!" Yoshi volunteered, throwing an egg bomb into Gohdan's mouth. The bomb exploded on the inside, causing Gohdan to fall down to the ground, exposing both of its eyes.

"Leave those eyes to me!" Mario exclaimed, conjuring up a fireball from both his palms.

With that said, Mario tosses both fireballs at Gohdan's eyes… and once they struck their target, beams of light shone out from the head as the same disembodied voice from before spoke again:

_The path can now be opened. Oh, chosen ones… What will now come to pass is tied to your fate – to the path that you have chosen. Go forward with caution._

The beams somehow disappeared, and while Gohdan's head and hands were heading back to their resting spots, a column of light shone out from the hole in the ceiling. Everyone regrouped near the column of light.

"Good… Good work, you guys…" Link panted, having all of his injuries healed thanks to Peach. "Seriously, I couldn't have done this without your help…"

"That's what friends are for!" Yoshi chimed.

"***chuckle* **yeah…" then, remembering what Gohdan spoke to them, he wondered, "Say, what did that thing meant by 'the path that we have chosen'?"

"We have no idea either." Toad shook his head while shrugging.

"Well, then let's proceed forward as it just said." Mario said. "Maybe we'll know more if we do that."

Everyone else had to agree on that and then they all stepped into the light, ready to see what their path of chosen fate was and awaited them.

But little did the Mario cast knew… that this was the time when they'll finally locate the lost kingdom they were so desperate to find, which was met with a shocking fate…

**To be continued…**

* * *

**Man, that scene where the statue blows up on Link's face and he faceplants (again) against a wall gets me every single time! Luka's reaction to that was basically my reaction when I first saw it!**

**I just couldn't help myself and sneak in once again another Super Mario Odyssey reference when it comes to the subject of possession! For the dungeon progress overall, it was pretty hard for me to come up with some unique moments so I decided to just give it lots of splitting up.**

**With that, the Tower of the Gods is completed! You definitely know what's going to happen next if you're familiar with the game! Until then! **


	9. No More Hiding the Truth

**Finished the next chapter at last!**

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 9: No More Hiding the Truth**

The light took the heroes outside, right at the very top of the tower. It was nighttime, meaning that they did spent quite a long time in the dungeon. There was a tall structure in front of them with a large bell at its top. Luka and the Mario cast watched as Link climbed up the ladder and looked up at the bell above. Seeing a pole in it, Link took out his Grappling Hook and launched it up to it to start swinging.

The loud noises of the ringing bell echoed all over the portion of the Great Sea where the Tower of the Gods stood, clearly sending a message to the gods about the rise of a new hero who, along with his comrades, managed to successfully overcome the trials in the tower.

In response to that, a ring of golden light suddenly materialized right in front of the tower's entrance. Somehow, the heroes were sent back all the way to the bottom as they steered the boat towards the ring of light.

"You have done well, everyone." the King of Red Lions spoke. "It would seem the gods have acknowledged you to be true heroes. But this does not mean your trials have ended here… Once you take your first step into the world beyond the ring of light you see shimmering in the waves before you… Your true trial will begin." he turned to face the group. "Are you ready?"

Everyone had the same answer. "Yes."

With that, the boat cruised forward to the ring of light, and much to the group's surprise, they all began to sink into the water.

* * *

As the boat sank deeper and deeper underwater through a column of light, Link and the others except for Luka were holding their breath while gazing around the eerily empty ocean bottom. Soon, they felt that were slowly running out of breath as they let out all of the air inside their lungs, but surprisingly enough, they didn't start choking.

"Huh…?" Link's eyes widened. "We can… breathe underwater?"

"Yep! There was no need to hold your breaths!" Luka winked.

"You sound pretty excited about this." Mario noted. "Why's that?"

"Because… see it for yourselves."

The moment she said that, the blueness of the ocean suddenly faded away, being replaced by a dull grey color and all the fluidness of the water was completely gone. Link and the Mario cast then looked at the direction Luka was facing, and the first thing they saw was a giant grey castle standing in the centre of a massive grey pond.

"There was a castle underwater?!" Link exclaimed in surprise.

"Look at that symbol!" Yoshi pointed to one of the castle's tall towers, where the crest of the Royal Family of Hyrule stood at the top.

"Wait… We've seen that symbol before…" Peach pondered… and then it hit her, "Could this place be…?!"

It was then that realization struck the rest of the Mario cast.

"No way… We actually found it at last!" Toad exclaimed. "The lost kingdom of Hyrule!"

"But… what is it doing _underwater_?!" Luigi asked. "And… why is everything dull and grey?"

"I don't know, but it is as if the entire place is frozen in time…" Mario mused.

"_These guys claim to be from a different world, yet they know about this place?_" Link thought, before an anime tic mark appeared on top of his head. "_I'm starting to get fed up by all those unanswered questions…_"

Eventually, the boat came to land on the pond, in which the water didn't even move under it due to it also being frozen in time. Link and the others disembarked from the King, and made their way up to the steps.

"Leaving your friends aside, you are probably wondering where we are, aren't you?" the King of Red Lions spoke to Link.

"Well, yeah." Link nodded.

"Unfortunately, there is not enough time for me to explain it to you now…"

"***sigh* **Again with that, King?" Link sighed in frustration. "Why do you _always _have to keep hiding the truth from me?!"

"Hey, Link…" Luka tried to talk some sense into Link, but he ignored her.

"Seriously! You made all of us go to all sorts of different places to get three pearls, in which you did not explain their purpose to me until we got all three of them. We also got these star pieces that not only you didn't explain their purpose again, but you also told us to ignore them for now. You made us go through a trial and then we came to this place, and _yet again _you don't want to explain all of this to me." he fumed. "I just don't understand why you can't explain to me already all the new stuff I don't know! All I wanted from the very beginning was to save my sister, not to go through dangerous trials!"

"But, Link-"

"Don't say _anything _else to me!" Link rudely interrupted the King. "Honestly, I'm sick of having the truth being hidden from me all the time. And that includes _you guys_!" he pointed to Mario cast, who all gasped in shock after hearing this as well as Luka.

"L-Link?!" Peach stuttered. "W-We… we're really sorry, but that's because-"

"Oh, NOW you're sorry? Sorry about not telling me the truth right from the very beginning? Forget it." Link stormed through the group, right towards the castle's entrance. "For now on, I am not going to be surrounded by unanswered questions anymore. I'll find the truth myself if I have to!" he then dashed to the entrance.

"Link, wait up!" Peach called out, but Link was long gone. "No… What have we done?" she lamented as the rest of the crew frowned in guilt.

"It is not your fault." the King of Red Lions told them. "I suppose it is only natural for Link to become frustrated like this. Even so, I suggest you go after him just so he doesn't get too reckless. He might possess great courage, but that doesn't mean he takes precautions of his actions."

"You're absolutely right." Luka nodded. "Let's go, guys!"

* * *

_**With Link…**_

"Whoa…" he awed at what he's seeing in front of him and everywhere in general.

The entirety of the castle from inside was also colored dull grey and frozen in time, as there were several frozen Moblins and Darknuts all over the place. There were several portraits of members of Hyrule's Royal Family on the walls, and up ahead was a large statue depicting the fabled Hero of Time.

That statue obviously caught his attention so he made his way over there. As he went down the stairs, walking past the frozen monsters, Link thought about the harsh things he just said before to his friends. He began to feel really awful about it and started to regret for saying those things, since he and his new friends have been through so much together, such as helping each other along their way, and if it wasn't for their help, Link definitely wouldn't have overcome all these sorts of obstacles alone. He had never lost his temper, and a remark from a talking boat of all things is what triggered it. It was a feeling where frustration takes over you from what your friends said or did to you and releases it on them, but afterwards, you feel bad about that since you know you just made them upset.

"_Everyone… I'm so sorry._" Link thought. "_I just hope you can forgive me afterwards…_"

Once he reached the statue, he saw a passageway with a staircase going down on the floor. Curious, Link went down the stairs, not noticing Luka and the Mario cast following him as well.

Down the stairs was a wide chapel-like chamber, also colored dull grey all over the place. The walkways on the corners led to a dais, where knight statues were surrounding a sword stuck in a pedestal. On the walls circulating outside of the dais, there were stained glass windows, with six of them depicting the Six Sages from the Era of the Hero of Time, two of them on both corners depicting the Triforce, and the last one at the very middle depicting Ganon being sealed away into the ocean.

Of course, Link didn't recognize any of those stained glasses as his main focus was the dais up ahead. He made his way over to the pedestal with the sword, as there was a ray of light shining down on it. Link looked at the sword in awe: the fabled Master Sword, despite having its color faded, still looked exactly the same as when the Hero of Time wielded it… except that its guard resembling wings were folded inside the hilt, which is definitely very odd to us but not for our hero.

"Wow… I could definitely use this…" he breathed.

At the same time, his friends had just arrived silently at the chamber as well, watching Link from the uppermost walkway as Luka signaled the Mario cast to stay quiet.

"Alright, then. Here goes…" Link said and proceeded to grasp the sword's hilt.

Using all his strength, Link begins to pull out the sword, stopping in surprise as he felt the blade slip out of the pedestal for a bit before slowly pulling out the rest of it until it was fully out of its pedestal. It was at this moment that the statues surrounding the dais inexplicably sprung to life and lowered their swords down until each sword clashed with each other over the top of Link. With that, a bright light came from the ray of light above the pedestal, and then it got brighter and brighter, making Link and his friends shut their eyes to not let the light blind them.

* * *

Soon after opening their eyes upon the passing of the light, the heroes found themselves in the same chamber now filled with color and life. The walls, the floor, and the walkways regained their cobblestone color and look, the carpets turned bright red, the stained glasses were blooming with all sorts of colors, torches were lit on the walls around the walkways… But most of all, the Master Sword was now back to its original colors everyone is familiar with.

The Mario cast watched in amazement as they saw Link examining the Master Sword and doing a few swings with it, as if he was always meant to wield it, before raising it skywards. That sure made them remind of the Hero of Time they had traveled alongside with previously.

"Link! You really are the new chosen one!" Yoshi blurted out in excitement as he flutter jumped down the walkway, much to the others' dismay.

"Yoshi, shush!" Mario warned, but too late. Link heard what Yoshi said and turned around to see his friends a few feet away from him.

"Guys…?" his eyes widened. "Did you… follow me all the way here?"

"Yes, we did…" Peach sighed as she and the others had crestfallen with saddened looks. "We're sorry… Please don't be mad at us, Link."

"No, I'm the one who should apologize." Link frowned while looking down in regret. "I'm so sorry for yelling at you all. My frustration took over, and I couldn't control it."

"It's okay, we forgive you." Luigi smiled. "And I bet the King of Red Lions would forgive you too."

"Really?"

"Of course!" Toad exclaimed. "We're friends, after all!"

Link felt his smile returning again. "Thank you, everyone." He then looked down at the Master Sword. "Say, what kind of sword is this? Do you know it?"

"Yes, we do." Luka nodded. "It is known as the Master Sword, the blade of evil's bane."

"Evil's bane… Wait, does this mean this sword…!?"

"Exactly. It is the only weapon that can banish Ganondorf from the world above."

"So… does this means I can finally defeat him? Great!"

"Hey, wait a second…" Yoshi mused as he walked up closer to Link and glanced at the Master Sword, and he immediately noticed the odd changes. "Something's off about it, though…" unknown to him and the others, Luka had a troubled look on her face as she quickly ran up to Yoshi.

"What is it?" Link asked.

"It's about its edges and the gem… They're not-… MMMPH!" before Yoshi could say anything else, Luka quickly covers his mouth.

"Uh, Luka, why did you…?"

"Don't question it! It's a secret to everybody." Luka replied.

"_Why am I familiar with that last line, for some reason?_" Link thought while tilting his head. "Ookay, then…"

"Hey, guys!" Toad called out from below the dais. "You all might want to take a look at these!" he directed to the stained glasses on the walls. Taking a good look at them, the rest of the Mario cast's eyes widened up in surprise as they immediately recognized the Six Sages depicted on them.

"Are these… the Six Sages?!" Luigi asked.

"You got that right!" Luka smiled.

"No way… It's Ruto, Rauru, Saria, Darunia, Impa and Nabooru!" Peach exclaimed, saying the names of all the Sages in clockwise order.

"Does this mean… that this is what became of Hyrule in the future?" Mario wondered. "It got flooded deep into the ocean?"

"Yep." Luka nodded. "I could explain why to you, but let's leave all that to _someone _else."

"_Once again with all of them saying things I don't know…_" Link thought. "_After what happened before between us, should I try asking them about that?_" he took a deep breath, and called them out, "Hey, guys?"

"Yes, Link?" Toad replied as they all came to Link.

"I've been thinking… Now that we're even, do you mind explaining to me how do you know about all of that?"

"What?" Yoshi tilted his head.

"Like, how do you know about those people on the walls and what this place is? You all claimed to be from a different world, but honestly, ever since the beginning of our journey, I fail to see that."

"You know, maybe you should tell him the truth, guys." Luka told them.

"Yeah, maybe you're right." Peach nodded, especially after what happened before until Link apologized. "Link… You know about the Hero of Time, right?"

"I do." Link nodded. "My grandma told me about his story ever since I was little, but I thought it was just a legend."

"Well, turns out that story was true. We all actually met the Hero of Time and adventured alongside him."

Link felt his eyes grow wide upon hearing that. "You did?!"

"Yes." Mario nodded. "That's why we knew several things in this world because of what we encountered in our previous adventure in Hyrule. Does that make sense?"

"Definitely." Link nodded back. "But, what about Luka?"

"Oh, I am a different case." Luka replied. "I wasn't with them in their previous journey, but the reason I know a lot about this world is because I've played a game based on this adventure we're having. Due to this, I know everything that's going to happen onwards."

"…I don't quite get what you meant, but whatever." He then smiled at his friends. "Thanks for explaining one of my unanswered questions to me. That alone made me satisfied."

"You're welcome!" Toad chirped. "Hopefully you won't get frustrated again!"

"I hope so too." Link chuckled.

"Eh…?" Yoshi heard some metal clanking noises coming from aboveground. "I just heard something from above!"

"Oh, yeah…" Luka's eyes widened up in realization. "Now that the castle has regained its colors back and time unfroze, so did all the Moblins and Darknuts around it as well. So that means we'll have to fight all of them once we get back."

"Well, we're already a big team." Link smirked. "An army of Moblins and Darknuts for us is nothing! Right?"

"Yeah!" everyone else exclaimed before they all dashed to the exit and ready to face a horde of Moblins and Darknuts.

* * *

_**Later…**_

After all the Moblins and Darknuts were dispatched, the heroes made their way back to the King of Red Lions, despite all of them looking a little bruised.

"Ah, you're back." The King said. "I can see that everything went well between you and Link after what happened."

"Yes…" Link nodded, although looking a bit saddened. "And, King… I should also apologize to you since I yelled at you too. Do you forgive me?"

"Of course I do. Hopefully you understand that the reason I never tell you everything immediately is because you might get reckless and go charging into any problem without thinking. I don't want you to become a hot-headed hero, you see."

"I understand." Link nodded again. Then, something came to him as he took out the Master Sword to show it to the King. "Say, is this the item I needed to get from the castle?"

"Indeed it is, Link!" the King exclaimed. "At long last, our preparations are complete. Let us return to the world above by riding that same light that brought us here. Link, the time has come to save your sister from her prison in the Forsaken Fortress! Let's hurry!"

"Yes, sir!" the heroes replied in unison before climbing on the boat.

The King of Red Lions began to cruise its way towards the light, but then he suddenly stopped.

"Hold up." He spoke and then turned to Link, "Link… Even though you apologized to me, I was thinking about that argument from before… and I've made a decision."

"What decision?" Link asked, noticing a hint of sadness in the King's voice as he spoke to him.

"After you and your friends finally slay Ganondorf from the world above, I shall tell you everything else. Everything about Ganondorf… About this kingdom… Everything that you want to know, I promise. Deal?"

Link didn't even hesitate. "Deal." Sure, it will probably take a while, but at least he will know the truth about everything upon accomplishing his task.

With that, the King resumed cruising towards the light, and it lifted everyone upwards back to the surface.

"Whoa, we're back!" Yoshi exclaimed in surprise, since the surface felt much different than the bottom.

"I also noticed something…" Link pondered. "The mountains we saw from down below as we were ascending… Were they all these islands from up here?"

"Well, it makes sense considering that islands _are _the result of the water level rising up." Toad stated.

"Yeah, that seems valid enough. Now, let's go kick Ganondorf's butt and save my sister!"

"All right!" the other heroes cheered as Link stomped on the sail button and they were off.

Little did they know, that something big would happen soon enough…

**To be continued…**

* * *

**Honestly, I think this chapter turned out a little too short for me, but oh well.**

**If you played the game, you definitely know what's coming next! ;D**

**See you soon!**

**PS: Today is my birthday! I'm now 20 years old! :D**


	10. Ganondorf

**I was going to add _that _moment for this chapter, but since it turned out longer than I expected, I'll leave it for the next chapter.**

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 10: Ganondorf**

The Forsaken Fortress looked exactly the same as when Link was launched over and his friends fell in there. Night has also taken over, no matter what time of day was throughout the rest of the Great Sea.

"This place sure brings back bad memories…" Link mused with furrowed eyebrows.

"You're not wrong." Luka said. "Even so, this is the very same place where we all first met."

"And also where we landed and immediately got sent to prison…" Toad added while tilting his head towards the ground, clearly with a face of exasperation.

As they sailed closer to the fortress, they saw that there were cannons on the walls on the side of the entrance, likely to keep intruders away.

"Looks like they replaced this fortress' security system." Mario said.

"Too bad that we also got a cannon!" Link smirked as he loaded the boat's cannon and proceeded to destroy the cannons before destroying the entrance as well.

Reaching the dock, the group hopped out of the King as he spoke to them:

"Ganondorf has likely been made aware of our little incursion already… But you, Link, have the Master Sword! That sword shall shine in the darkness, casting back evil… With it in your hands, none can keep you from rescuing your sister! Do not be afraid!"

"Yes, King!" Link replied while his friends nodded. "We won't let you down!"

They wasted no time and went up the stairs, eventually reaching the wide open area where Luka and the Mario cast crash landed when they made it to this world, except that there were no spotlights at all. The group then took a few steps forward…

"**Mwa ha ha ha ha ha…" **but then, they suddenly heard a dark and evil chuckle from behind them. When they all looked back, they saw… Phantom Ganon.

"What the?!" Link flinched.

"**HA HA HA HA HA HA!" **Phantom Ganon laughed evilly.

"It's Phantom Ganon!" Luka exclaimed as Phantom Ganon floated away from them and held his free hand up, charging a blue ball of energy before launching it at them.

"Move!" Mario called out and everyone dodged the ball of energy in time.

"**You fools shouldn't have come back…" **Phantom Ganon spoke as Luka and the Mario cast were throwing their best projectiles at him, but that didn't have any effect on him as he charged up another ball of energy. **"Especially you!" **he launches the ball right towards Link.

"Link! Swing your sword at it!" Peach instructed, having seen this type of battle before since she had done the same on a different version of Phantom Ganon once.

Hearing Peach's words, Link quickly swung his sword at the ball or energy, sending it back at Phantom Ganon, who reflected it back at Link. Unfortunately, Link didn't react in time and was struck by the ball as Phantom Ganon chuckled.

"**You amuse me, kid." **He jeered. **"Are you sure you're the new hero?"**

"Nngh…" Link groaned as he got back up, only to see that Phantom Ganon had now teleported close to the ground right in front of him. Phantom Ganon prepared to strike Link by swinging his giant sword at him, but Link was quick on his feet and did a parry attack, but that did nothing on the phantom. "What…?!"

"**That sword won't destroy me." **Phantom Ganon said. **"You're setting yourself up for failure…"**

"No… I will NOT fail!" Link hollered. "I shall emerge victorious!" he declared as Phantom Ganon teleported back into the air and charged up a ball of energy again before tossing it at the hero.

This time, Link was prepared as after he sent the ball back at Phantom Ganon who volleyed it back, the hero sent it back again at the phantom. The volley continued on until Phantom Ganon was struck by the ball and fell to the ground on one knee, where Link proceeded to slash at him repeatedly until he cried in pain and in defeat, only to teleport into the air while doing another evil laugh.

"**You may have beaten me… But you have no idea what you have done by returning with that sword!" **those were Phantom Ganon's last words before vanishing, and a treasure chest showed up.

"Good riddance." Link said as he opened the chest, pulling out the Skull Hammer. "Oh, neat!"

"A hammer with a skull-shaped head?" Toad asked, but then his expression changed to a bright one in realization, "That might be just the thing we need to get rid of those spiky pegs I saw over there!" he pointed to said pegs.

"Um, why didn't you tell us earlier, Toad?" Luigi asked. "I and Big Bro could've just used our hammers."

"Even so, we would have been ambushed by Phantom Ganon anyways." Mario pointed out.

"Oh, yeah… you have a point."

"Hmm… Okay, now I'm wondering; what did Phantom Ganon meant by what I had done after I took the Master Sword?" Link wondered.

"We all shall know this soon… once we directly confront Ganondorf himself." Luka said with a serious expression. "And Yoshi?" she glanced at the dinosaur.

"Yeah?" Yoshi asked.

"About the comment you made about the Master Sword before I covered your mouth, Ganondorf shall also explain about that."

"If you say so…"

"Well, anyways…" Link spoke up. "Let's go save my sister!"

"Right!" the others nodded.

"Luka, could you take us all the way up there again?" Peach requested.

"Sure thing!" Luka replied and then snapped her fingers to surround everyone in smoke and then they all reappeared at the double doors leading to the fortress' cells. "Here we are!"

"Welp, we didn't even need to remove the pegs." Toad remarked. "I kind of forgot that Luka could just warp us directly here." Luka couldn't help but chuckle at that.

"Well, we do have a peg right here that'll open the door for us." Luka stated, directing to said peg.

"Then I guess this will be a great practice object for me to test out this new hammer!" Link took out the Skull Hammer and swung it down at the peg, in which it unlocked the double doors leading to the cells.

"_Well, this is it._" Link thought with a determined expression upon approaching the double doors. "_I'll save you this time, sis._" he pushes the doors open and he and his friends walked inside.

* * *

For the most part, the room remained the same, yet it still possessed that eerie air around it. Due to this, Link and the others slithered in, as they remembered what happened the last time they were here, so they hoped the Helmaroc King wouldn't come for them again. They slowly tip-toed into the room, looking for any signs of danger. Once they all made sure nothing was going to happen, they sighed in relief and relaxed, before trotting over to the cell where Aryll and the two other girls were.

"Hey, Aryll." Link spoke up quietly with a smile. "I'm back."

Hearing Link's words, Aryll immediately turned around, overjoyed to see her older brother again and safe.

"Big Brother!" she chimed quietly, catching the attention of the two girls as they looked over in surprise. "You're OK!"

"Don't worry, sis. I'll get you out of there." Link assured.

"Brother…" Aryll whispered. "…I was…worried."

Link looked to the right, seeing the cell's door. He walked over to it and immediately had the instinct to just turn the doorknob to open it, but obviously, the door was locked. The Mario cast already knew that, and all they could do was look at Link in dismay, while Luka just sweatdropped playfully.

"The cell won't open that easily!" all of a sudden, Tetra's voice came from behind them as they turned around in surprise to see the fearsome pirate captain along with Gonzo and Senza standing there.

"…Tetra?! Where did you come from?!" Link asked.

"There you go… Acting before you think, as usual…" Tetra said, not bothering to answer Link's question, and then motioned Gonzo and Senza to go open the cell door properly. "I swear! Do you even realize that we had to draw that monster bird off for you? It was about to come flying in here after you again!"

"_Maybe the King was right… I think I AM being rash and impulsive most of the time…_" Link thought as he and his friends watched Gonzo and Senza unlocking the door.

And because they, especially Link, had their back turned to Tetra, she was able to see the Master Sword sheeted on Link's back, causing her to gasp in shock with eyes open wide. But why was she so surprised about the sword?

Link heard Tetra's gasp and turned around, locking eyes with her with furrowed eyebrows.

"What was that?" he asked in a serious tone.

"…That sword!" Tetra replied. "Where did you get that?! Are you… Is it even possible…?"

Now Link looked awestruck as he glanced back at the Master Sword on his back. Does Tetra know about it? But that didn't really matter as Tetra went back to her usual snarky attitude and shrugged.

"…How could it be?" she asked quietly before quickly changing the subject. "Hmm… Well, never mind about that. For now, we'll just take these girls. I'm sure their fathers back in town will pay a handsome reward for their return."

As she said that, Gonzo and Senza walked out of the cell, each of them carrying the two girls over their shoulders. With the cell door open, Aryll was finally able to reunite with her big brother.

"Oh, Big Brother!" she beamed, running over to Link.

"Sis!" Link exclaimed as they both shared a warm hug, as Luka and the Mario cast watched that moment with warm smiles, especially Mario and Luigi, as they both knew that a family reunion was always a great feeling.

Unfortunately, that moment would be cut short as Tetra cleaned her throat to catch everyone's attention.

"I'm so sorry to interrupt such a heartwarming reunion…" she said before gesturing up to the high exit of the prison. "But isn't there still something that you and your friends need to take care of?"

Link and his friends knew exactly whom Tetra was talking about as they nodded with looks that just screamed of revenge. The exit above was from where the dreaded Helmaroc King came from and ambushed them last time. But now, they weren't going to get taken away again this time; they were ready to unleash their sweet revenge on that bird.

"If you're worried about your sister…don't be. I promise I'll deliver her safely back to your little island." Tetra said. "Normally, I'd expect a huge reward for something like this…but this time, it's my treat!" she then addresses Aryll, "Listen, Aryll, your brother and his friends still have some things to take care of. Big, important, grown-up things. He'll be back soon, so you just wait nice and quiet until he returns, OK?"

"But, Big Brother…" Aryll whispered.

"I'll be fine, sis." Link assured. "I've got friends at my side. Plus, if I leave that bird be, you'll be in trouble again, and I don't want that to happen."

"O-Okay…"

"Miss Tetra!" Gonzo called out. "We have to hurry! The bird will be here any second!"

"Gonzo! Excellent! You're just in time!" Tetra exclaimed. "Take this one for me."

"Huh?! But she's…"

"She's fine! Just do as you're told!"

Despite being taken back quite a bit, Gonzo obeyed Tetra's orders and picked up Aryll and then walked towards the double doors while carrying her over his shoulder.

"Big Brother!" Aryll cried while reaching out to Link as he was just meekly waving goodbye to her.

Tetra followed Gonzo towards the double doors, but before heading in, she stopped and looked back at the group while sporting her signature wink.

"Everyone! We'll be back. I swear it!" she said before leaving.

And just in time too, because the Helmaroc King eventually came flying by the exit above as the heroes noticed that.

"There he is…" Link braced himself, as did the others. "Get ready, guys!"

"All right!" everyone else nodded.

But then, they heard a gurgling sound near their feet as they looked down to see that water was gushing out of a circular wooden grate on the floor, and it was starting to flood the room fast.

"Uh oh…" Luigi gulped, but the rest of the group weren't intimidated by that at all as they all looked up again to see the Helmaroc King coming down and flying over the rising water.

"It's payback time, chicken bastard!" Link growled as the Helmaroc King just stood there as the group began to make their way to the very top to avoid being drowned by the rising water.

"…Seriously? Is he not going to do anything to us?" Toad wondered as they kept running up, while the Helmaroc King was just keeping an eye on them.

The moment Toad said that, though, they had passed a stone walkway just in time as the Helmaroc King rammed into it to destroy it.

"Whoa!" Yoshi exclaimed. "He's trying to cut off our path!"

"You were saying, Toad?" Mario glanced at Toad with an unamused expression.

"Heh heh… oops." Toad replied nervously.

"This means we have to hurry before he destroys anything else in front of us!" Peach stated.

They kept going up, managing to get past the stone walkways first before the Helmaroc King destroyed them, and not bothering to fight any Bokoblins that attempted to ambush them. However, when they were just a few inches away from the opening above, the Helmaroc King landed right in front of them with its head leaning towards them as if it was about to peck them.

"Oh, get lost!" Link scowled, taking out his Skull Hammer. "TAKE THIS!" he hammers it down RIGHT into the Helmaroc King's face, causing the bird to screech in pain and fall down into the water below with a large splash.

"Well, that takes care of it." Luigi said, a little taken aback by what Link did previously.

"It's not over yet, unfortunately." Luka shook her head. "But first, let's climb up."

Everyone then climbed up to the exit, taking them outside in a circular arena surrounded with spikes. The exit begins to close up, making the ground shake as the heroes struggled to keep their balance. Alas, the exit was closing way too slowly, giving enough time for the Helmaroc King to come out of it and spread its wings while letting out a loud screech. It also dropped a _lot _of feathers in the process too.

"Welp, Luka wasn't kidding." Mario remarked.

"It's alright. I'm up for round two!" Link exclaimed in determination, holding the Skull Hammer aloft.

They watched the Helmaroc King fly around for a bit as they braced themselves for what it was going to do next. The first thing the Helmaroc King did was flapping its wings fast enough to create strong gusts of wind to try to blow the heroes into the spikes, but they held on to the ground to avoid being blown away. Next, the Helmaroc King landed right in front of the heroes, attempting to crush them by slamming its beak down, but the group moved away from it, resulting in the Helmaroc King getting its beak stuck to the ground.

"Now! You three with hammers, attack him!" Luka hollered as Link, Mario and Luigi ran up to the Helmaroc King's head with their hammers in hand and hammered it down with enough force to make the mask concealing its face to shatter.

The Helmaroc King's true face was revealed, showing that it had glowing red eyes. Now angry than ever, the Helmaroc King proceeded to fly away again, swooping right back to the heroes while scratching the ground with its claws right towards them, but they rolled away in time. The Helmaroc King landed in front of the heroes again, and this time, it proceeded to stomp the ground rapidly as they had a hard time dodging its stomps… and in the midst of that, one of the Helmaroc King's claws was caught into Luka's Joy Pendant replica necklace, breaking it apart as a result. Luka gasped at that.

"NO! My only replica of the Joy Pendant!" she cried in shock, before immediately getting angry at the Helmaroc King. "Why, you…!" and due to the fact that her volcanic powers are triggered when she gets angry… her hair became like flowing magma and her eyes had flames inside as the rest of the group looked at her with completely stunned faces.

"Oh, boy…" Luigi trailed.

"YOU ARE SO DEAD!" Luka yelled, causing her body to expel flames and her hair to shoot out lava… literally, scaring the group even more, but the Helmaroc King didn't look fazed by it as it just looked at her with a 'What can you do?' expression.

Luka immediately proved the Helmaroc King about how dangerous she gets when she's pissed off by firing a stream of lava from her hands at the giant bird, in which it blocked it by placing its wings in front of its body. Unfortunately, by injuring its wings, it means that it couldn't fly in the air anymore as the giant bird came crashing down to the ground, exposing its yellow weak spot on its forehead.

"BEGONE!" Luka growled, thrusting her hand at the Helmaroc King's weak spot to overheat it as the bird cried in pain, and then she stepped back to let Link stab it with his sword, since after all, he really wanted to get his revenge on the bird that gave him so much trouble.

The Helmaroc King screeched in pain and spazed out before taking off flying. The redirected spotlights shone their lights at the giant bird, just to give some extra awesomeness to the explosion of feathers that followed its death.

The Helmaroc King was no more, and it felt good to Link and everyone.

"Good. Riddance." Luka said, and then she calms down to make her hair turn back to normal and the flames around her body disappeared.

"Holy… crap…" Toad blinked, everyone looking completely flabbergasted after witnessing what Luka could do when at full power.

"_Now I know why I should never piss her off…_" everyone else thought.

"Sorry that you had to witness that." Luka replied sheepishly.

"You weren't kidding about how your powers work…" Mario said.

"Still, I feel sorry about the fact that you lost your pendant…" Peach lamented.

"Oh, it's okay!" Luka smiled and then pulled out a real Joy Pendant from her pocket. "That Joy Pendant I had was just a replica anyways. Who needs a replica while I can just have the real thing?" she joyfully puts on the new pendant as the others sweatdropped.

"That Luka sure is… something." Link commented.

"No kidding." Luigi agreed.

"Anyways, we should get moving now."

Everyone else nodded and proceeded to walk up the newly opened path leading to the shipwreck from above. Along the way, something came into Luka's mind as she called the attention of Mario, Toad and Yoshi:

"Hey, you guys!" she whispered to them.

"What is it?" Yoshi asked.

"I forgot to give you something since we were at Windfall Island." She reached into her pocket and pulled out three necklaces with the three Star Pieces they collected along with the pearls as the pendants.

"Aren't those the Star Pieces?" Toad asked.

"Yep! I made them into necklaces which I think would suit you well! If we get more Star Pieces, which I just know we will, I'll make more for the rest!"

She hands them the necklaces, with Mario taking the one that had the Red Star Piece, Yoshi taking the Blue Star Piece, and Toad taking the Green Star Piece.

"Huh, these aren't too bad." Mario commented once they put on the necklaces.

"Not sure what the purpose is, but eh, whatever." Toad shrugged.

"Well… I just thought they would look good." Luka replied.

At this moment, they all have finally arrived at the shipwreck's large door, no doubt leading them to the mastermind behind all these kidnappings. Feeling more confident than ever to face Ganondorf now that he's got the Master Sword, Link and his friends walked through the door.

* * *

The heroes slowly walked into the room, seeing the exact same robbed man they saw at the very beginning of their journey standing near the windows with his back turned to them.

"It's been a while, you all." He spoke. "You have done well to sneak into my fortress and wriggle your way all the way up here. I suppose the least I can do is commend you for your reckless courage." It was then that he finally turns around to face them. "My name is Ganondorf… And I am the master of the Forsaken Fortress."

"Yeah, yeah, we already know who you are…" Toad spoke up. While Link recoiled back by the sight of Ganondorf, Luka and the Mario cast instead had the looks of 'Wow, what a big surprise…'. The Mario cast was still terrified of Ganondorf, but for this particular moment, they decided to not show it.

"Indeed." Link quickly shook it off and stood brave. "And we're here to defeat you… with THIS in hand!" he held out the Master Sword, but Ganondorf merely just chuckled at this.

"Oh, you have no idea what you just did by removing that sword." He smirked.

"What? What did I do?" Link asked, remembering that those were almost the same words told to him by Phantom Ganon previously.

"When you drew that sword of yours out of its pedestal… Did you by chance notice how all of the monsters frozen in time down there suddenly began stirring again?"

Link and the others except for Luka gasped as they all glanced at the Master Sword.

"Wait… you don't mean…?!" Link stuttered. "The Master Sword… was a _key_?!"

This wasn't too surprising for the Mario cast, since they already witnessed the Master Sword being used as a key to something; in that other case, it served as the key to the Sacred Realm. Apparently, there's no Sacred Realm in this Era, or it ceased to exist due to Hyrule's flooding.

"Foolish child. While that sword is indeed the blade of evil's bane, at the same time, it has long played another role…" Ganondorf said. "The very word that you just spat out… a sort of key… a most wretched little key that has kept the seal on me and my magic intact!"

"_No way… The Master Sword's role as a key this time was to seal away Ganondorf's powers?!_" the Mario cast thought. "_That's even worse than opening up the way to the Sacred Realm!_"

"By withdrawing the blade, you have broken that seal…"

"_Oh dear Hylia, what have I done?_" Link thought as soon as realization struck him faster than a lightning bolt.

…Hold on, he still had the Master Sword, right? Who's to say that by defeating Ganondorf, his power could be just sealed back again? Wanting to finish this at once, Link once again put on an angry expression and glared at Ganondorf.

"You…" the hero growled. "I'LL SHOW YOUUUUUU!" he yelled, charging right at Ganondorf and slashed right at his stomach.

Unfortunately… that did absolutely nothing on the king of evil as he just stood there with an evil grin. The next thing Link knew, he had looked up at the towering Ganondorf… before getting backhanded away by him.

"Link!" Luka and the Mario cast cried as they rushed to Link and knelt down next to him, but they recoiled in surprise when Ganondorf pointed one of his swords closer to their faces.

"You cannot defeat me with a blade that does not sparkle with the power to repel evil! What you hold is useless. Go back to the world below, and tell that to the pathetic fools who made this blade!" Ganondorf mocked. "Its power is gone, and its edges are dull!"

"_For all this time, that was just an ordinary sword?!_" Link thought horrified.

Letting out another evil chuckle, Ganondorf rose his sword up, ready to cut down the heroes… when suddenly…

"Hey, you!" Tetra's voice came as Ganondorf stopped at what he was doing and turned around, seeing the pirate captain looking back at him smugly before rushing up to him and kicking him in the chest. But that, of course, did nothing on Ganondorf as he also backhanded Tetra away, but she landed on her feet to the ground right next to the group.

"T-Tetra…?" Link groaned weakly, struggling to get up.

"Link! Get up!" Tetra demanded.

"He looks badly hurt…" Peach whispered.

It was then that Mario, Yoshi and Toad looked up to see Ganondorf attempt to snatch Tetra as their eyes widened.

"Tetra, look out!" the trio warned in unison as they got in front of Tetra… only for Ganondorf to snatch all of them anyways, holding the four by their throats.

"No!" Luigi cried while Peach and Luka gasped.

"Uhh! Stop!" Tetra yelled.

"S-Stop… choking us!" Yoshi gasped for breath.

"Let… Let us go!" Mario demanded.

"You pathetic little rats!" Ganondorf growled as he reached out his free hand towards the four, as if he wants to break their necks.

Just then, he stopped midway when the mark of the Triforce of Power began to resonate with four strange objects each of them held as pendants for their necklaces; Tetra's being a golden triangle missing its center and only had the edges, and Mario's, Yoshi's and Toad's being the Star Pieces.

"Huh?!" his eyes widened up in surprise by that. "My Triforce of Power is resonating!" his face then changes that to a sadistic grin. "Ha! At long last, I have found you… Princess Zelda and the Sages!"

Everyone else's eyes, with the exceptions of Link and Tetra, shot open in complete shock by this reveal. Why did Ganondorf refer Tetra as "Princess Zelda", and Mario, Yoshi and Toad as "Sages"?

"Wh-What?! What are you talking about?" Tetra questioned. "I don't know any Zelda…"

"A-And… we're not even related to the Sages, for crying out loud!" Toad added.

"Feigning ignorance will gain you nothing!" Ganondorf scoffed. "Tell me… If you are not Zelda and the Sages, then why do you have these fragments of the Triforce and from the Grand Stars of Forest, Fire and Water?"

"Wait, WHAT?!" the Mario cast and Luka yelled in shock. "_So the Star Pieces… were fragments of the Grand Stars we got from the Six Sages?!_" the Mario cast thought, not expecting this sort of reveal, including Luka.

Just then, before Ganondorf could do anything else, the room began to shake, causing the king of evil to turn his attention to it. In the midst of that, though… a few white blurs suddenly swooped by, disappearing along with all the heroes including Tetra, much to Ganondorf's surprise that soon turned to dismay as he saw that the blurs belonged to the Rito, carrying the group away from the shipwreck.

In addition to that, Valoo showed up from outside of the window, but Ganondorf wasn't intimidated by him as he just let out a small cackle before the sky spirit breathed fire at the shipwreck, burning it entirely. Valoo then flies away, with the Ritos holding the heroes on their talons following suit.

* * *

Link was first to come back to reality as so did his friends, glad to see that they were alright, but he was saddened to see Tetra still unconscious. They were all back at the King of Red Lions, and were taken all the way back to the Tower of the Gods along with the Ritos and Valoo.

"Tetra…" Link lamented, looking down at her in pity along with his friends.

"Is she going to be fine…?" Peach wondered.

"It's all right, everyone! She has merely lost consciousness." Quill assured.

"And Link, your sister has escaped the Forsaken Fortress with the pirates. You can relax. She's safe now." Komali informed.

"Well that's a relief…" Yoshi sighed.

"Lord Valoo!" the King of Red Lions spoke up to Valoo. "You arrived not a moment too soon… We are deeply grateful."

"(Still, it is too soon for us to relax. Ganondorf cannot be destroyed by such simple means as wrath and fire.)" Valoo replied.

"I am aware of this. Yet I thought our first priority should be to separate these ones from Ganondorf's grasp."

"(I see… and I agree. Very well then! We are counting on you!)" he then left back to Dragon Roost Island, with the Ritos following suit.

"I suppose we should be thankful for the Ritos rescuing us from Ganondorf…" Mario stated. "…But, I'm really confused by what he just spoke back there."

"Exactly!" Link nodded. "You WILL explain all of this to us, right?"

"Yes. I will explain things later! For now, we must return to the world beneath the sea!" the King of Red Lions exclaimed. "Your questions will be answered as soon as we set foot back there!"

Immediately nodding in response, Link and the others drove the boat into the ring of light, and sunk beneath the waves once again.

The heroes were in for some big surprises…

**To be continued…**

* * *

**Now you know what happens to Luka when her powers reach**** their limit... and I think the Helmaroc King's music theme kind of fits for a certain moment like this to happen.**

**Next up, Tetra's true identity will be revealed, but you already know that! See you then!**


	11. Those Guided by Destiny

**Hooo boy... This chapter took forever! But a lot of unique things that makes it diferentiate a bit from the original game will show up in here!**

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 11: Those Guided by Destiny**

"Ohhh… Owwww…" Tetra groaned, slowly opening her eyes.

"Hey, you're up!" Link smiled as he and his friends watched Tetra sit up before locking eyes with them.

"Link! And you guys too! You're all right?" it was then that Tetra took notice of her surroundings, "What is this place…? Hey! And Ganondorf! What happened to him?"

"Well, he just-… AAH!" Link jumped in startle when the sound of the Pirate's Charm suddenly came as he pulled it out of his pocket.

"_Everyone! What are you doing?" _to everyone's surprise, the King of Red Lions' voice came from it, despite that they were all boarding him just now. _"You must come now to the room where Link got the Master Sword!"_

"Who is using that stone…?" Link murmured.

"_And why is the King's voice coming out of it…?_" the Mario cast thought, while Luka was just looking at everyone with the widest mischievous grin possible as she knew exactly what was coming up.

"Just who are you?" Tetra questioned. "Link and I are the only ones who can speak through this stone! How dare you use what's not yours?!"

"…_Your name is Tetra, correct?" _the King spoke. _"You must come with the others to see me at once!" _he then ends the call.

"That was… odd." Link blinked.

"Hmph! Well, don't you sound important!" Tetra scoffed at the charm. "…Fine. We're on our way. Just hold your horses, whoever you are." She then hops out of the boat, landing on the water with a splash. "So, what are you waiting for? You heard the stone. You're all supposed to show me how to get to where that voice is!"

"Well, alright." Link replied before hopping out as well. "Come on, you guys."

The Mario cast and Luka nodded as they and Link made their way back inside Hyrule Castle with Tetra following behind. Tetra looked around in awe as they emerged in the castle's grand hall and reached the secret entrance leading to the chamber where the Master Sword was as they went down.

* * *

However, once they arrived at the chamber's dais, there was someone standing there facing the windows: a large old man wearing red robes reminiscent of a king with a white collar, white trousers and brown boots. Link and the Mario cast looked at the man in awe.

"_Strange… That man wasn't here before…_" they thought.

"Are you him? Are you the one who was speaking through my stone without my permission? Answer me!" Tetra demanded.

"That stone is an enhanced version of the Gossip Stones long spoken of in the legends of the Hyrulean Royal Family. I am the one who made it." The man spoke, his voice being heard for the first time… but it sounded _quite _familiar to Link and his friends.

"_You_ made it? The royal family's Gossip Stone?" Tetra sassed. "I'm sorry, but I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Aside from Link's friends, have neither of you heard the tales? Tales of the kingdom spoken of in the legend of the great hero… The place where the power of the gods lies hidden…"

"Wait, are you talking about… of the tale of The Legendary Hero?" Link asked.

"You heard of that tale too?" Tetra asked as she glanced at Link before turning her attention back to the man, "Are you telling me that… that tale wasn't only a myth?"

"Exactly. All of that was indeed real." The man nodded. "This place, where all of you now stand, is that kingdom. Link, your friends have told you that before, haven't they?"

"You mean… this really is…?" Link couldn't finish due to his shock.

"Yes… This is Hyrule…" the man then turns around, revealing his face. "And I am its king: Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule."

"…You're the king?!" the Mario cast exclaimed in unison before immediately bowing to him.

"There's no need to do that. You can raise your heads." King Daphnes said as the Mario cast did just that. "Now… you five and Link, do you not recognize my voice?"

Link and the Mario cast's eyes grew wide in shock. "…King?! Is that really you?!" Link asked.

"Indeed, I am the one who guided you all here. I am the King of Red Lions."

"To tell you guys the truth, I already knew about his real identity from the very beginning!" Luka winked at Link and the Mario cast. "The only reason I didn't tell you all was due to spoilers!" the group could understand that, since Luka was a gamer and knew everything about this world, but even that, it was still a very shocking reveal for them.

"Anyways…" King Daphnes resumed. "There was no need for me to reveal my true identity to you so long as that blade, the Master Sword, could defeat Ganondorf… But now…all of you must listen to me. And that includes you too, even if you all were in that previous adventure." He points to the Mario cast.

"Huh? How did you know…?" Mario blinked.

"Let's just say that a certain sorceress told me about you." The Mario cast's eyebrows perked up, knowing exactly whom he was talking about. King Daphnes then turned to Luka and addressed, "I know that you probably have heard the story already, Luka, but you don't mind listening to it again?"

"Of course not!" Luka chimed. "I enjoy the game's storyline anyways!"

"If you insist." King Daphnes nodded. "Once, long ago, this land of Hyrule was turned into a world of shadows by Ganondorf, who sought to obtain the power of the gods for his own evil ends."

Recalling back to the events of their previous adventure in Hyrule, the Mario cast still got chills from when Ganondorf managed to take control of Hyrule during the seven-year time skip. Strangely enough, Ganondorf didn't appear to possess the exact same lust for power in this era as he did so previously as they noticed how he behaved back upon confronting him at the Forsaken Fortress.

"My power alone could not stop the fiend, and our only choice was to leave the fate of the kingdom in the hands of the gods… When the gods heard our pleas, they chose to seal away not only Ganondorf but Hyrule itself…and so, with a torrential downpour of rains from the heavens… Our fair kingdom was soon buried beneath the waves, forgotten at the bottom of the ocean."

"_So that's what happened…_" the Mario cast thought.

"Yet all was not lost. For the gods knew that to seal the people away with the kingdom would be to grant Ganondorf's wish for the destruction of the land. So, before the sealing of the kingdom, the gods chose those who would build a new country and commanded them to take refuge on the mountaintops. Those people were your ancestors." He pointed at Link and Tetra.

"Our ancestors…?" Link and Tetra awed as the Mario cast glanced at them in surprise.

"Hundreds of years have passed since then… So long as Ganondorf was not revived, Hyrule would remain below, never waking from its slumber." He next motioned to Tetra, Luka and the Mario cast. "Tetra, and all of you, come to me."

The seven called were taken aback by a bit as Link looked at them in surprise, but they didn't hesitate and slowly walked to King Daphnes, who held out his right hand as a golden, green, red, blue, purple, orange and yellow glows materialized on it. The glows formed into, respectively, the golden-colored pendant Tetra held, the Green, Red, and Blue Star Piece that Toad, Mario and Yoshi held, and surprisingly, Star Pieces colored purple, orange and yellow each.

"Let's start this first with Tetra. This necklace you wear is part of a sacred treasure called the Triforce of Wisdom, which has been passed down for many ages within the royal family of Hyrule. Your mother passed this down to you and instructed you to treasure it…and to guard it with your life. Am I not correct?"

"Y-Yes…" Tetra nodded, eyes open wide. "But I never knew what that was, and my mother passed away, so I never got to know about it…"

"She didn't want to tell you about it because she wanted to keep Hyrule's existence a secret to you and that you also wouldn't understand."

"Oh…"

King Daphnes next addresses Luka and the Mario cast. "Now for the rest of you. The Star Pieces we've been collecting along with the Pearls are from three of the Six Grand Stars that belonged to the original Six Sages. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, and Toad, you still remember about these Grand Stars and what were their purpose, right?"

"Yes, we do." Mario answered for them.

"Do you know what happened to them after we sent Bowser back to our world?" Peach asked.

"I do. Once you used these Grand Stars to send the villain of your world back home, they were shattered into five pieces and scattered across the land. I managed to recover one piece each when I was in my boat form, but the others are either sunk under the seas or underneath different islands."

"Hmm, we see it now…" Toad mused. "But hold on, I still don't get something; why did Ganondorf address me, Mario and Yoshi as Sages?"

"Ah, yes… I am aware of that. The original Six Sages are long gone, as you might know. The gods knew that one day, the Grand Stars would come into play again, but, of course, they first had to choose six individuals with great potential to become the new Sages. And these new ones were… you all." Upon hearing this, Luka and the Mario cast's eyes grew wide again, surprised that they were specifically handpicked as the new Sages of this era.

Finally, he addresses all of them, "You see, the Triforce of Wisdom is none other than the sacred power of the gods that we have kept from Ganondorf's clutches for so many long years. The gods placed upon Tetra's ancestors the task of protecting it from evil's grasp. However, it is required the power of the Seven Sages, the seventh one being the owner of the Triforce of Wisdom, for the power of the gods to remain stable, and these powers were what Ganondorf was after all the time."

The king then held out his other hand, materializing a smaller golden triangle that would fit perfectly with the piece Tetra had, and another Green, Red, and Blue Star Piece on it.

"You all, too, must abide by the laws of the past…" he first hands the Star Pieces to Luka and the Mario cast. "But for you to completely achieve the power of the Sages, you must gather all of the Star Pieces and complete the Grand Stars." They nodded as they took the Pieces, and then King Daphnes glances at Tetra. "And now, Tetra, the time has come for me to teach you the fate into which you were born – the very reason that you live."

Tetra remained motionless in shock as she watched the golden pieces dancing towards each other with a spin before perfectly slotting into place. The completed Triforce of Wisdom then shone out beams of light that nearly blinded Link as he shielded his face from them.

When the lights faded, Link looked back… and gasped in shock as he saw that Tetra looked completely different as the Mario cast were just as shocked as well.

Tetra was no longer the fearsome pirate captain anymore; instead, she was now a beautiful and delicate princess. Her skin tone had lost its tan as it was now a pale peach, her blond hair was down as it reached all the way down her back, and makeup was added to her face that consisted of sky-blue eyeshadow and pink lipstick. Her new outfit consisted of an elegant pink dress, the top being a hot pink with a white sleeveless undershirt and golden accents on her chest holding a light pink scarf-like around her neck, and the skirt under the golden belt around her waist was light pink with a dark violet lining its edge. Long silky white gloves that reached past her elbows were adorning her hands, there was a dark violet tabard in front of the skirt that extended down to its bottom, pink heels were donning her feet, a golden necklace made out of three hot pink jewels was around her neck, and finally, on her head was a golden tiara with a hot pink shield-shaped jewel in the middle, and over her ears, there appeared to be white wing-shaped accents.

"_No way… She really is Zelda…_" the Mario cast thought.

Tetra, now Zelda, looked down at the back of her right hand and saw the mark of the Triforce of Wisdom appearing on it, causing her to let out a shocked yelp as she looked down at her new self.

"My…fate…" she whispered.

"You are the true heir of the royal family of Hyrule…the last link in the bloodline." King Daphnes said. "You are Princess Zelda."

Princess Zelda… That's the same name Link and the others heard from Ganondorf back at the Fortress! With this reveal, Link now knew that he wasn't lying.

"…Zelda? I'm…a princess?" Zelda asked.

"You are confused, aren't you? I suppose such is to be expected." The King then turns back to Link, "Link! I am terribly sorry that you have been caught up in these events. But now that it is known that Tetra is indeed Princess Zelda… Ganondorf will be searching frantically for this child in an attempt to get the power of the gods that she possesses. He will not rest until he has found her."

"What about my friends… or should I say Sages?" Link asked.

"They still haven't unlocked their Sage powers yet, so there's no need to worry for them. Remember, if Ganondorf succeeds in finding Zelda, my ancient kingdom under the sea will be turned into a land of shadows and despair…and so will the world you know above the waves."

By hearing this, Link felt a slight chill down his spine, but also determination; there's no way he was going to let Ganondorf take over both lands. Somehow, he also felt an instinct about protecting Zelda at all costs… but he didn't know why. For now, he ignored this and focused on what's important right now.

"Link, I need you to lend me your strength in this dark hour." King Daphnes requested. "I have a suspicion about what has caused the Master Sword to lose its power. I need for you and your friends to come with me back to the lands above the water and return the power to repeal evil to the Master Sword!"

"Will do, King!" Link nodded.

"That's what I wanted to hear from you!" King Daphnes next addresses Zelda. "Zelda… It is far too dangerous for you to join us in this task. Fortunately, this sacred chamber is not yet known to Ganondorf. It is my wish that you wait here in hiding until we return."

"Y-Yes…" Zelda nodded… aaaand then King Daphnes suddenly vanishes. "Huh?!"

"What…the…?" Yoshi blinked.

"King…?" Link asked.

"Everyone! We must go!" King Daphnes' voice came from behind them as they turned around to see him magically teleporting up one of the walkways until he vanished completely at the exit.

"That was… weird." Toad summed up what just happened perfectly.

"Tell me about it." Luigi threw in.

"Well… that happened." Link broke the awkwardness. "Come on, guys."

"Everyone…" Zelda called out to the heroes, causing them to stop and turn around.

"Yes, Tet-… Uh, Zelda?" Link replied. "Sorry, I don't know how I should call you anymore…"

"It's fine… Anyway, I don't know how to say this… Everything that's happened to you and your poor sister… It's all been my fault."

She wasn't wrong about that; it was due to her and her crew coming to Link's home island that Aryll was kidnapped in the first place, and so Link was forced to let himself get dragged on to a journey across the seas despite being only 12 years old. On the bright side, though, it eventually led to this moment where he and Tetra would discover their true identities and their destiny as the Hero with a courageous spirit and the Princess who carries the blood of the Goddess Hylia.

"…I'm so sorry." Zelda apologized solemnly, looking slightly away and placing a hand on her chest similar to how the previous Zelda did, and thus the Mario cast started to have flashbacks about them along with the other Link meeting Zelda again at the Temple of Time from their previous adventure. Needless to say, it sure brought them back good memories.

"Oh, don't be!" Link replied with a cheerful smile before assuring her, "I am not going to let you fall into Ganondorf's hands again. That is a promise. Just stay here, and you'll be fine. Besides, if my sister didn't get captured in the first place, we would never be here where we are now."

"Yeah, maybe you're right… Okay, I'll stay here and wait for you all."

Link and his friends did one last farewell to Zelda before proceeding to leave the chamber, with Zelda sorrowfully waving at them.

"Everyone… Be careful…"

Once everyone made it back outside the castle, they saw the King in his boat form again.

"Everyone, listen well…" he began. "The fact that the Master Sword lost the power to repeal evil suggests to me that something has happened to the sages who infused the blade with the gods' power."

"Sages? What Sages?" Peach asked. "It's not us, right?"

"No. I'm talking about the Sages of Earth and Wind. They should be here in Hyrule…in the Wind Temple to the north and the Earth Temple to the south, praying to the gods. You must head for these two temples to see what has happened to the sages and attempt to find a way to recover the power to repeal evil."

"Right." Link nodded firmly.

"Unfortunately, Ganondorf seems to have erected some sort of magical barrier down here in Hyrule, blocking our path to the temples. But…each temple should have another entrance high upon Hyrule's mountaintops, which are now islands above the sea."

"_Huh… so my friends were right about the islands being mountains…_" Link thought.

"As always, I shall mark these places on your Sea Chart. Now then… If we stay here much longer, we shall draw our enemy's attention to Princess Zelda's whereabouts. We must return to the surface immediately!"

The heroes didn't hesitate to nod back and hopped into the boat, steering it towards the light to take them back to the land above.

* * *

As soon as they did, however, the circle of light vanishes, cutting off their path back to Hyrule. Well, for now at least.

"Welp, there goes the passage back to Hyrule." Toad said. "But I guess that's necessary so that Ganondorf wouldn't find it."

"You're right." the King of Red Lions nodded. "I can guess that your friends already know it, Link, but do you know the legend of the Hero of Time?" he addressed Link.

"Well, not very much…" Link replied while rubbing the back of his head. "The tale my grandma told me didn't have much information about him."

"Then I shall tell you what I know about him, and your friends can tell you more as we sail." the King of Red Lions cleans his throat and begins, "Once, long ago, he defeated Ganondorf and brough peace to the Kingdom of Hyrule… A piece of the Triforce was given to the Hero of Time, and he kept it safe, much as the previous Zelda kept hers. That sacred piece is known as the Triforce of Courage, the last of the three pieces that correspond to the power of the gods, along with Power, held by Ganondorf, and Wisdom, held by Zelda. When the Hero of Time was called to embark on another journey and left the land of Hyrule, he was separated from the elements that made him a hero."

"_Oh! He must be talking about the events of Majora's Mask now that I think about it!_" Luka thought. "_I should've known that by now after finishing the game many times!_"

"It is said that at that time, the Triforce of Courage was split into eight shards and hidden throughout the land. Even I do not know where they rest, but this much I do know: they lie hidden somewhere in this Great Sea."

"I see…" Link mused. "But for now, we should focus about the two sages first, right?"

"Exactly. Go forth, Link!"

The hero set the sail and everyone took off. During the travel, the Mario cast told Link a summed up version of their journey with the Hero of Time, and Link, of course, was amazed at the story.

"Wow… I never knew he was just as young as I am and was forced to grow up earlier by time traveling…" Link awed.

"It must be tough to experience that, isn't it?" Mario frowned. "At that point, the Hero of Time must have lost his innocence…"

"At least you guys were lucky that you didn't age."

"True." Peach replied. "But now, after we just witnessed down there in Hyrule… I never knew _we _would be destined to become the new Sages of this era…"

"While I did find this shocking, at the same time I found it exciting!" Luka chimed. "I never knew we would play such a big role by coming here!"

"You can say that again!" Toad threw in.

"Hey, guys…" Yoshi trailed as he saw something at the distance. "Am I seeing things or is that cyclone heading right towards us?"

"Huh?" Link's eyes widened in alarm as he and the rest looked at the direction Yoshi was looking at, and they indeed saw a large cyclone slowly creeping towards them.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot!" Luka exclaimed. "Link, head towards that cyclone!"

"WHAT?!" Luigi yelled. "Are you crazy, Luka!? It's going to blow us away!"

"No, we won't get blown away, trust me! Just do as I say and follow my steps, Link!"

"Well, okay…" Link shrugged and then drove the boat right towards the cyclone, where a laugh coming from a red-colored frog sitting on a pink cloud appeared inside.

"Foolish creatures who do not fear the gods! To the end of the sea with you! Let the winds of Cyclos's wrath blow you away!" the frog, named Cyclos, declared, and then he made the boat move slowly into his cyclone.

"Quick, Link! Shoot an arrow at him!" Luka ordered.

"Got it!" Link takes out his bow and shoots an arrow right at Cyclos, causing him to cry in pain as the cyclone disappears. The large god flies down to their level and looked down at them.

"That's a heck of an arm you've got there!" he laughed before shrinking himself down to their size and approached them. "And what an eye! No one's ever been able to spot me in there before now! You obviously have mastery of the air. And now that we've established that you're quite the Wind Waker… Let's see if you can handle this!"

Cyclos then floated back into the air and did a down, right, left and up movement. Link got what he meant just by the mention of the words 'Wind Waker' and takes out the baton itself and waved it in the same directions as Cyclos did. The hero thus learns a new melody: The Ballad of Gales.

"Waaaaa-hoooooooooooooo!" Cyclos cheered. "In the hands of a Wind Waker like you, my adorable little cyclones will be as happy as can be! If you need to move like the wind over the ocean deeps, just call on my cyclones! Well, I guess I'll head for home now! See you on down the road!" he flies away into the distance.

"That was… something." Toad remarked.

"So, now what?" Link asked.

"Just conduct the new melody you just learned, and then think 'Mother & Child Isles'!" Luka instructed. "It will take us to a place where we'll get two certain important items!"

After a shrug, Link conducts the Ballad of Gales and does what Luka instructed him to do. Eventually, a cyclone suddenly surrounded the boat as it spun rapidly before taking off to the skies as the heroes held on tight.

* * *

The cyclone took all of them into a circular pond surrounded by vegetation located at the top of Mother Isle. There were small Fairies fluttering around the pond, so the Mario cast figured that it was a Fairy Fountain. And shortly after, a stream of sparkles shot out of the altar in the middle, becoming thinner until it dispersed, revealing a childlike female figure with a pale body and hollow eyes and holding a doll on her hand. That was the Fairy Queen.

"Tee hee hee!" she giggled. "Tell me, little boy… Can you control the wind?"

"Um, yes." Link replied.

"Hee hee! So young, to have such power… How did you know to find me here?"

"One of my friends here told me. Who are you?"

"I am the queen of the fairy world! What is the matter, my child? Does that not surprise you? Young one…"

"But… You're a child…I think."

The Fairy Queen smiled sweetly at Link. "I like you. And so, I shall give new power to the bow that you wield."

With that, she brings her doll in front of her and then smashed it with both hands, creating two fairies in the process. Interestingly, one of the fairies had a blue trail while the other had a red trail as they danced in the air right above Link as he and the others watched in awe. The two fairies then stopped right in front of the young hero… and then the fairy with the blue trail flew right into Link, causing him to yelp as he felt a shiver throughout his body. The fairy with the red trail followed up, and Link felt his body warm this time.

"What… was that?" he breathed, and then suddenly, arrows of fire and ice materialized right in front of him as he looked at them in surprise. "Whoa…"

"Ice Arrows can freeze the hottest flames, and Fire Arrows can melt the coldest ice." the Fairy Queen said. "The fairies in this fountain will ease your weariness. Use them as you need to." she then let out another giggle and spoke up, "Child… I must tell you… You are just my type. Tee hee hee!"

Hearing this, Link was at first shocked, but soon began to blush as he chuckled to himself while his friends glanced at him in surprise… and then the King of Red Lions looked back at him, and whatever emotion he was trying to decipher couldn't be expressed.

After more laughs and giggles, the Fairy Queen disappears. With everything done in here, Link was about to conduct the Ballad of Gales again, until a mysterious voice suddenly spoke to him and his friends:

"_Link… Mario… Luigi… Peach… Yoshi… Toad… Luka…" _the voice sounded feminine, and somehow quite familiar to Luka and the Mario cast. _"If you can hear me, then I want you all to meet me at Headstone Island… In case you don't know its location, it's just east of Outset. I'll wait for you there…"_

"…You all heard that too, right?" Link asked everyone else.

"We did." Mario nodded, along with the others. "What's odd is that this voice sounded familiar to us… but we're not sure yet."

"You think so? Well, then let's head for said island and find out."

Link takes out the Wind Waker and conducts the Ballad of Gales. This time, he had his mind set on Outset Island, and the cyclone immediately did its work.

**To be continued…**

* * *

**Hmm, I wonder who could this mysterious voice belong to? And also, I have something... very different planned for the Earth and Wind Temples. You'll just have to find that out by yourselves! ;D**


	12. Awakening the Sages

**Yet another chapter that took forever! But it's finished!**

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 12: Awakening the Sages**

"WHOOOOAAA!" the heroes yelled as they came down from the cyclone due to Link having played the Ballad of Gales, landing right next to Outset Island.

"Mama mia…" Luigi groaned dizzily. "That's a _new _one…"

"Ooogh… I think I'm gonna be sick…" Toad groaned.

"My head is spinning…" Yoshi groaned.

"I'm a little dizzy, but I'm alright." Link said. "You guys okay?"

"Yeah, we'll live." Mario replied as he shook it off.

"So now we have to go east, right?" Peach asked.

"That's right." Luka nodded. "If memory serves right, Headstone Island is the next island after Outset to the east!"

With that, they wasted no time in heading for Headstone Island. Speaking of which, this island has a beach covered with tiny stones and was surrounded by larger ones crossing the island. At the very end of the largest stone on the island, there was a large head made out of stone leaning against it.

However, what caught the heroes' attention the most was that there was a cloaked person standing on the beach. Luka and the Mario cast noticed that the person looked similar to the sorceress who sent them to this world, but could it really be her? They'll have to dismount the boat to find out.

As they did so, it appears that the cloaked person immediately noticed their presence and turned around to face them.

"Ah, I see that you've arrived just as I told you." the person spoke, sounding exactly like the mysterious sorceress.

"Wait… You're the sorceress, aren't you?" Toad asked. "And are you the one who told us to come here?"

"That's right." the sorceress nodded. "I came to this world because… I want to help you out with your task of restoring power back to the Master Sword."

Luka and the Mario cast's eyes grew wide. "Really?!"

"Yep! And with that… I believe it's time for me to reveal myself."

With a swift left arm movement, the sorceress removes the cloak, letting it fly away by the wind. Her appearance was that of a young woman with light blue hair, and she had a friendly soft smile on her face. She was also carrying a grimoire on her right arm.

Everyone was left in shock by the sorceress' true appearance; they were not expecting her to be such a beautiful young woman at all.

"Whoa…" Link breathed. "Who _are_ you?"

"I am known as the white sorceress." the sorceress replied. "You can call me… Lana."

"Lana…?" the Mario cast blinked.

"_No… WAY!_" Luka thought overenthusiastically, due to seeing another Zelda character that she likes right in front of her.

"Mhm!" Lana nodded, still smiling.

"You know, there's something I want to ask." Mario said. "How did you know about the troubles happening in Hyrule just so you could send us out to help the hero?"

"That's because I know a lot about the history of Hyrule, and its past, present, and future of it." Lana replied. "You see, I'm also a Guardian of Time, watching over the balance of time in Hyrule from multiple periods. As for why I sent you all specifically… well, aside from Luka who I only did it in order to fulfill her wish, for the rest of you, I could see great potential in you all, from participating in multiple events and frequently using teamwork. Even the gods of Hyrule themselves seemed to acknowledge your actions from your previous adventure, which might be the main reason you were all chosen to become Sages. And for Luka's case, it's due to her high knowledge of this world that she was also chosen."

"I guess that makes sense." Luigi said. "Hold on! Does this mean that when the King mentioned about a sorceress, he was really talking about you?"

"Bingo!"

"_Yep, she really is a cheerful one…_" Mario thought with a playful smile.

"Indeed." the King of Red Lions interfered. "I have met Lana not too long ago before you came to the chamber, and she told me everything about you, Heroes from Another World."

"Oh, we see it now…" Peach mused.

"Okay, now how exactly are you going to help us out?" Link asked.

"Well, first of all… I went for two certain islands and got these from each of them!" Lana took out a pair of Power Bracelets and Iron Boots, much to Luka's surprise.

"You actually fetched the two items we needed from the Fire Mountain and Ice Ring Isle for us?!" Luka asked.

"Yep! Surprised, aren't you?" Lana playfully winked. "Anyway, these two new items will help you uncover both this and Gale Isle's secret passages that will lead them to the whereabouts of the two Sages." she said while handing both items to Link.

"I see… Thanks." Link said, taking the items and put on the Power Bracelets while putting the Iron Boots away. "So, what does these bracelets do?"

"They grant you the ability to lift up heavy objects, even if they are way bigger than you!" Lana explained. "Just try it out on that stone head over there!" she points to the stone head.

Nodding, Link ran over to the stone head and put his hands underneath it. Using all his might, Link manages to lift up the stone right above his head before throwing it away, much to the Mario cast's shock as that remind them back when the Hero of Time lifted up a large stone pillar in Ganon's Castle.

"Wow, I'm surprised this actually worked!" Link exclaimed… and then saw the Mario cast in a shocked trance akin to the one they had previously as I mentioned above. "Uhh… Guys?" he walked over to them and waved his hand in front of them as they blinked a few times before snapping out of it.

"Link as an adult lifting up heavy things is one thing, but a _child _Link doing that is _something else_!" Luigi remarked.

"Déjà vu, much?" Lana teased. "Well, sorta…?"

"I can guess that you have experienced something similar to that in your previous adventure, right?" Link guessed as the Mario cast nodded. "At least now I know." he chuckled.

The large group then entered the passage that was behind the stone head, taking them into a cave where a large stone wall stood in the way, but it did have symbols depicting different directions engraved on it, indicating that this was another melody for the Wind Waker.

Link looked at the directions: the order was down, down, center, right, left, center. He took out the Wind Waker and successfully waved the baton in said directions, learning the Earth God's Lyric.

Just then, the Triforce symbol on the wall glowed, and then a gust of wind came from behind the group as they turned around. When the wind cleared, there stood a ghostly figure that heavily resembled a Zora, to which besides Luka and Lana, the Mario cast immediately recognized.

"O great hero, chosen by the Master Sword!" the Zora sage spoke directly to Link. "My name is Laruto. I am a Zora sage."

"_So that's how a Zora is like…_" Link thought.

"For an age, I offered my prayers here in the Earth Temple, praying that the power to repel evil would ever remain within the Master Sword. And yet…unfortunately, due to Ganondorf's evil designs, the Master Sword you hold has lost this power. After his defeat at the hands of the Hero of Time, Ganondorf was sealed away by the Seven Sages…but not for all time. He was revived, and he returned to Hyrule in a red wrath. He attacked this temple and stole my soul, knowing that he had to remove the power contained in that enchanted blade."

This made Link and the Mario cast's eyes widen in surprise and in realization; the reason the Master Sword no longer held the power to repel evil was due to this sage, and possibly the other one, being killed by Ganondorf. The Mario cast knew Ganondorf was an evil man, but they never thought he would go that far as to kill _sages _of all people. And if they, along with Luka, were chosen to be the new sages and if Ganondorf manages to capture them, imagine what he could do to them!

"In order to return the power to repel evil to your sword, you must find another to take my stead in this temple and ask the gods for their assistance." Laruto said, and then showed them what she was carrying; a golden lyre. "You must find the one who carries on my bloodline… The one who holds this sacred instrument…"

"But… as far as I'm concerned, I haven't seen any Zoras around…" Link said.

"Nothing can stop the flow of time or the passing of generations…but the fate carried within my bloodline endures the ravages of all the years. It survives. The song you just conducted is one that will open the eyes of the new sage and awaken within that sage the melody that will carry our prayers to the gods. The door that blocks your way will only open when the sage plays that song. May the winds of fortune blow with you."

The gust of wind came back, and Laruto disappears. Luka and Lana watched Link and the Mario cast standing there, trying to process about what just happened.

"Okay, so from what I heard, Ganondorf had killed that Zora sage and now we need to find another one to take her place, who's also supposed to be part of her bloodline?" Link summed up. "Where do we start?"

"Link, remember that we told you that the Zoras evolved into a different tribe when the great flood happened?" Luka reminded as Link nodded. "And what tribe have they become?"

"Umm… the Rito?" Link replied with unsureness… and then it dawned on him. "Are you saying that…?"

"Yep! The new sage waiting to be awakened is at Dragon Roost Island!"

"That's absolutely correct!" Lana chimed. "But first, I suggest we head to Gale Isle next."

"Why?" Yoshi asked.

"While it would be nice to do both temples one at a time, how about we split up into two groups and do both of them at the same time and instantly awaken the Master Sword's power back to full in no time?"

"Hey! That's a great idea!" Luka exclaimed, until something came into her mind. "But wait… by splitting up, Link will be in only one group, so how are we going to get the Master Sword from one temple to another?"

"Simple! I can just warp the group who went to one temple to the other!"

"Oh, right! I kind of forgot that you can also use teleportation magic..." Luka replied in embarrassment. "_Been a while since I last played Hyrule Warriors…_"

"Anyway, the reason why we have to go to that other island is because that since we're splitting up when we get to the temples, we have to see the other sage in order to do so." Lana stated.

"Oh, of course." Link nodded. "There's two sages, so we still have to see the other one." he turned to face the Mario cast. "Well then, off to Gale Isle!"

The Mario cast nodded before they all exited the cave, and afterwards, they boarded the King of Red Lions and once Lana indicated Link where Gale Isle is, he played the Ballad of Gales again.

* * *

This time, the cyclone took them to Windfall Island since Gale Isle was just to the north of here. Wasting no time, the group sailed north to head to Gale Isle.

This island was mostly covered in stone and vegetation compared to Headstone Island. The main obstacle ahead were the strong gusts of wind coming from a wall shaped like an Octorok's head, which were making the grass and palm trees flail violently by the direction the wind was coming from.

"Holy crap, that's a lot of wind…" Toad awed.

"Well, this island is called GALE Isle for a reason." Luka pointed out.

"Alright so, what do we have to do here?" Link asked.

"Just put on the Iron Boots, and destroy the source of this wind!" Lana explained.

"Oh, right!" Link then puts on the Iron Boots, and slowly trod his way to the wall, using the Skull Hammer to destroy it. The gusts of wind stopped, and everyone else were able to reach Link before they all went into the cave.

The interior of the cave was exactly the same as the one from Headstone Island, featuring a large stone wall blocking the path with symbols inscribed on it. This time, though, the directions of the new melody were: up, up, down, right, left, right. Link conducted his Wind Waker in the directions shown, and thus learned the Wind God's Aria.

Like before, the Triforce symbol glowed, and a gust of wind came from behind the group. They turned around, and what they saw was a ghostly figure of a Kokiri boy.

"Are you the new hero?" the Kokiri boy asked Link.

"Um, yes…" Link nodded.

"I am Fado of the Kokiri tribe. I know I appear to you as a child, but the eyes can oft deceive. I am a most esteemed sage. I had been praying here so that the power to repel evil would continue to be contained within the blade of the Master Sword… But I was attacked by the evil Ganondorf… and this is what happened to me."

The Mario cast couldn't help but frown at this. If Laruto and Fado were the only remaining members of the Zora and Kokiri tribes, that means both tribes went into full extinct by the time the Great Sea came to be. Sure, both tribes suffered a change in evolution for the best, but still… it was pretty saddening to know that the Kokiri and the Zora completely ceased to exist in this era.

"You wish to return the power to your blade, don't you?" Fado asked. Link glanced back at the Master Sword on his back before nodding at the sage, as the others did the same thing. "In that case, look for the one who has the same instrument that I hold, and teach him the song you just played." he showed them the instrument he was holding; a leafy violin and a wooden stick for the bow.

Immediately, Link and the Mario cast's eyes widened upon eyeing the instrument: didn't it look like the same violin that Makar played at the ceremony? Could Makar really be a sage?

"Once you do, I'm certain the holder of the instrument will feel the blood of the sages awaken within his veins." Fado said. "That Wind Waker you hold was used long ago to conduct us sages when we played our song to call upon the gods. In those days, it was always the king who conducted for us…"

"_The king…?_" Link thought, and then he realized something: the King of Red Lions was the one who gave him the Wind Waker, and he is secretly the King of Hyrule… If the king Fado mentioned was indeed the King of Hyrule aka the King of Red Lions, that's why he had the Wind Waker in the first place!

"Please… Tell the king that I will still play…even in the next world!" Fado then disappears.

"So both of the sages were killed by Ganondorf… No wonder why the Master Sword lost its ability to repel evil!" Peach concluded.

"You're right." Link said. "Now we just have to locate the new sages, right?"

"Exactly!" Lana nodded. "But first, let's decide the two groups to tackle each temple. We have the Wind Temple here, and the Earth Temple at Headstone Island."

Link, Luka and the Mario cast began debating about who's going to which temple. After a few seconds, they addressed back Lana with their choices: the ones who'll be heading to the Earth Temple were Link, Mario, Luigi, and Luka, and the rest, including Lana, will be heading to the Wind Temple.

"Good! It's decided!" Lana chimed. "Now here's what we'll do," she first addresses Luka, "Luka, you warp yourself and Mario and Luigi back to Headstone Island with your powers." next to Link, "Link, you head out to Dragon Roost Island and next the Forest Haven where you'll awake the two sages. But I'll make sure to help you out, so I'm coming along." and finally Peach, Yoshi and Toad, "And you three, wait here until I come back."

"Got it!" everyone else nodded, and then Luka snapped her fingers as she and the Mario Bros disappeared in a puff of smoke, while Link and Lana exited the cave as Peach, Yoshi and Toad waved.

* * *

By using the Ballad of Gales, Link and Lana were immediately taken to Dragon Roost Island, and once they both hopped out of the boat, sounds of harp strings suddenly filled the air around them.

"Hey, are those… harp strings?" Link wondered, listening carefully to the sounds.

"You got it right!" Lana replied. "I'll wait for you here. Just follow the sounds and they'll take you to the sage waiting for her awakening!"

Link nodded back and proceeded to climb his way up again, going through the Mail Center, and eventually coming upon a rocky spire where he saw Medli standing near the end of the jutting ledge playing her harp. He approached her, catching her attention as she turned around to face him.

"Oh, Link! You're OK!" Medli exclaimed. "Wait, where are the rest of your friends?"

"Don't worry, they're doing alright." Link assured.

"You know, Prince Komali's been asking me all about your adventures. I can rest easy now that I've seen you safe and sound with my own eyes. And while your friends aren't here at the moment, you just told me that they're fine too, so I'm very relived! Prince Komali's turned into a fine young adult, hasn't he?"

"_Way better than the big jerk he was before for sure!_" Link thought while nodding.

"Recently, he's even begun doing things on his own, without my guidance. …Every conversation still ends up centered on you and your friends, though. Watching Prince Komali grow up fills me with pride…but it makes me a little sad, as well… I wonder if this is how a mother feels… Oh, but just listen to me go on! How weird I must sound! Hee hee…" she then changes the subject. "Well, I'd better continue practicing so that I can be useful around here, too! Performing music like this is an important duty of an attendant." she resumes playing her harp.

"_Now's my chance!_" Link thought, proceeding to take out his Wind Waker while speaking to Medli, "Hey, Medli?"

"Yes?" Medli asked as she stopped playing her harp.

"I have an idea. Why don't I conduct a song for you?" he shows her the Wind Waker.

"Hey, is that the Wind Waker?! Wow!" Medli squealed. "That sounds like a great idea! Link, will you conduct me? I wonder how I'll do…"

"_Hopefully it works…_" Link thought as he rose the baton, ready to conduct.

With that, Link conducts the Earth God's Lyric, and Medli followed suit, playing the song perfectly. Shortly after the song finished, Medli found herself looking out at the sea.

"Hmm… What a mysterious song… It sounds so…familiar." she mused. "It's almost as if something I've forgotten is trying to be remembered…" she lowered her head… "Oh… I feel…" …and suddenly started to topple over, but Link was quick enough to catch her as she blacked out.

* * *

Medli found herself in a dark void of nothingness. She had her eyes closed until she suddenly hears a voice:

"_Medli…" _it was Laruto. Medli opened her eyes to see the Zora sage standing in front of her. _"My name is Laruto, the late Zora sage. Listen to my words, dear… Destiny has called you the sage of the Earth Temple. The Master Sword needs your prayers… Please listen to this melody."_

Laruto then plays the first half of the Earth God's Lyric on her harp.

"_Now you try." _she said, suddenly appearing on Medli's side.

Without hesitating, Medli played the second half of the song, and then the Zora sage resumed playing alongside her, resulting in a beautiful duet.

"_You have the power to help this world… Help the hero, who wields the power to repel evil. I believe in you…"_ Laruto spoke before she disappears.

* * *

"…dli…" Link's voice echoed in Medli's point of view as she began to regain consciousness. "…Medli! Are you okay?!" she saw Link looking down at her with a worried look.

"Mmm…" Medli mumbled, fully opening her eyes.

"What happened?"

"Just now, a sage spoke to me. She spoke so gently… There's something…something that I must do."

"…_Did it really work?_" Link thought.

"Link… Thanks to you, I've been awakened to the knowledge that I'm a sage of the Earth Temple. There's actually something that I can do to help this world. It's incredible…" she closed her eyes as she shed a tear. "I bet my teacher knew all about this…" she opened her eyes again and told Link, "Link, please… You must take me to the Earth Temple. We must hurry and wake the power to repel evil that sleeps within the Master Sword."

"Will do, Medli." Link replied. "But I must go somewhere else first. You don't mind, right?"

"Of course I don't." Medli smiled. Then, she and Link looked up at the sky to see Prince Komali soaring above. Medli hated that she had to abandon her home and leave Komali, but she had no other choice. "Let's go now, quickly and quietly." she said. "Oh, Komali… I just want him to remember me as a simple attendant…"

Soon, by the time Komali reached the spot where Link and Medli originally were standing on, they were already gone, leaving the poor prince devastated on the spot.

Down below, Link led Medli back to the boat, where Lana was waiting.

"I see that you brought the new awakened sage with you, Link!" Lana said.

"Oh, hello there!" Medli exclaimed. "Who are you supposed to be?"

"I'm Lana. Now, Link had probably told you before, but he needs to go somewhere else in order to awaken the _other _sage, if you know what I mean."

"Ah yes, I do. It's the sage of the Wind Temple. The Master Sword won't be complete without the other sage's prayer."

"Exactly." Lana nodded as the trio boarded the King of Red Lions. "Ready to go to the Forest Haven next, Link?"

"You bet!" Link said and then played the Ballad of Gales to warp everyone directly there.

* * *

Now at the Forest Haven, Link cruised the boat close to the ledge and hopped out.

"Once again, you should be able to find the sage if you listen to the instrument's sounds." Lana instructed. "In this case, listen to a violin."

"Understood." Link nodded, and then turned to Medli. "Medli, wait here. I'll come right back with the sage at my side."

"Okay." Medli nodded back and Link moved on, making sure to listen to a violin sound as he walked on.

Just then, he finally hears music from a violin as he followed it, but the strangest thing was that the music trail led him right… to a waterfall?

"Odd…" Link mused; can he actually go _into _the waterfall? Only one way to find out.

He took out the Deku Leaf and used it to glide right towards the waterfall, and much to his surprise, he went through it!

Inside the waterfall was a secret grotto. The music was a bit louder now that Link was inside, so he went down the pathway, and saw Makar playing his violin while standing on a giant lilypad surrounded by shallow water.

"Makar!" Link exclaimed as he went down to the Korok.

"Oh! Link!" Makar stopped playing to greet Link. "I haven't seen you in quite some time, have I? I'm surprised you were able to find me here. But… what about the other people with you?"

"Oh, they're doing fine. They just didn't feel like coming along, that's all. Now, why are you all the way down here?"

"I'm practicing a new song for next year's ceremony. And I need privacy! It isn't any fun if everyone knows in advance what song I'll play. What I want to know is how did you manage to locate this secret passage in the first place?"

"Weeell… I just heard your song from outside."

"What? You can hear my song outside?" Makar asked as Link nodded. "Ruh-really…? I thought the sound of the waterfall would drown it out… Perhaps I should play a little more softly when I practice from now on." he then resumes playing, but this time a little more softly as he just said.

"_Alright… Here goes nothing._" Link thought, taking out the Wind Waker as he called out Makar's attention again, "Hey, Makar…"

"Hmm?" Makar stopped playing to look at Link. "Let me guess, you want to let me know that you won't tell anybody about the song I'm practicing right now?"

"Well, I promise… if you do something with me."

"Okay! It's a deal! So, what is it?" Link then held out the Wind Waker, as Makar's eyes widened. "Why, is that a conductor's baton? Link! Are you a maestro?! That's incredible! Are you going to conduct for me, Link?"

"Yes! How does that sound?"

"Sounds perfectly fine to me! What kind of song is it? I can't wait to hear it and play! Please, conduct!"

With that, Link conducts the Wind God's Aria, and Makar followed suit on his violin. Suddenly, a strange feeling was coming to Makar as he mused:

"Hmmm… Does it go something like…this? Strange… Why does it feel like I already know this song…?"

Makar began to play the Wind God's Aria, and as he went on, he was suddenly replaced by Fado's figure, much to Link's shock. Despite this, Link decided to conduct alongside him until the song finished. Rounds of applauses then came from out of nowhere, and Link and Fado bowed to the unseen audience. Where are all these applauses coming from? Not even I have a clue about this…

The figure of Fado disappeared, and Makar was back as he faced Link and spoke up:

"Link… This sacred song that you've conducted has awakened me… I know myself now! I am the sage of the Wind Temple… It is my fate to return the power to repel evil to your Master Sword. …And to ease the regrets of my ancestors. Oh, Link, please! You must take me with you to the Wind Temple."

"Sure, Makar." Link nodded. "Let's be off, then."

The two exited the waterfall grotto and made their way back to the King, where Lana and Medli were waiting.

"You're back!" Medli said. "And is that the sage of the Wind Temple?" she looked at Makar.

"Yep!" Makar replied pridefully. "And you must be the sage of the Earth Temple, correct?" Medli nodded. "Good! That means we'll both be able to restore the power back to the Master Sword!"

Link and Makar hopped into the boat. "We're heading to Gale Isle now, right?"

"Correct!" Lana exclaimed.

* * *

_**Later…**_

Upon arriving at Gale Isle, only Lana and Makar disembarked as Peach, Yoshi and Toad ran up to them, while Link and Medli remained on the boat.

"You came back, Lana!" Peach exclaimed, before she looked at Makar. "So Makar really was a sage?"

"Indeed!" Makar nodded. "And I guess that you four will be the ones to guide me to the depths of the Wind Temple, huh?" the four nodded.

"Everyone, listen carefully to what I am about to tell you." the King of Red Lions said to the Wind Temple group. "The temple ahead is the nest of an evil creature…the same creature that stole the life of Makar's predecessor, the sage. I am counting on you to protect each other."

"We'll be fine, king." Lana assured and then turned to the others. "So, shall we get going?"

"Right!" the others nodded.

"Good luck to you and the others, Link and Medli!" Toad waved as Link and Medli waved back.

"See you later!" Yoshi added and then they made their way into the cave.

"And now, to Headstone Island!" Link declared, getting ready to warp him and Medli there to meet with the other group.

Once they made it back to Headstone Island, they found Mario, Luigi and Luka standing at the beach waiting for them. Link and Medli got out of the boat to meet up with the trio.

"Took you long enough, Link!" Luka winked. "And welcome aboard, Medli!"

"Thanks!" Medli chimed.

"Medli is a sage?" Mario asked. "Who would've thought?"

"I'm honestly just as surprised as you are." Link threw in.

"Everyone, and especially you, Link…" the King of Red Lions spoke up to the Earth Temple group. "As is the case with Makar, I have no doubt that Medli, too, has some special role to play in these events. Discovering that role is your duty. I am certain that by cooperating, the five of you can overcome the dangers and pitfalls of this temple… It is a dark and frightening place."

"_Fr-Frightening?!_" Luigi thought, paling up at that. Now he might of have regretted for choosing this temple…

"Now go. With two groups tackling the two temples at the same time, the power to repel evil shall surely be returned to the Master Sword!"

The group nodded and made their way to the cave, where inside, Medli plays the Earth God's Lyric upon eyeing at the large stone wall blocking the way. Eventually, the wall split in half and beams of light shot out of the crack it made before crumbling apart, revealing a passage leading to the underground temple.

The group slowly walked into the passage, coming upon a hole in the ground at the end. They each gave one another a nod before jumping in, ready to brave through the dangers of this temple.

**To be continued…**

* * *

**The mysterious sorceress turned out to be Lana herself! It makes sense that she knows everything that happens in Hyrule's history considering that she's a Guardian of Time in her home game.**

**So yeah! The something different that I planned for the temples was having the group split up and take on each temple at once! Plus, some of the scenarios that I came up for both temples didn't need a lot of people to be present for them. Due to this, the reason I made Lana appear at this portion of the story was to equal the number of the groups, her heavy usage of magic, and to also serve as the Luka to one of the temples.**

**Next up, we'll take a look at what each group will do in their respective temples, starting with the Earth Temple! Hmm, now that I think about it, this temple might as well be the Wind Waker's equivalent of Ocarina of Time's Shadow Temple... which is bad news for poor Luigi. Hopefully it won't turn out as bad! ;D**


	13. The Earth and Wind Temples

**Man, this chapter took forever! But it's done!**

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 13: The Earth and Wind Temples**

The Earth Temple was a dark and dim tomb made entirely of stone walls and floors. There were a few light sources in some portions of the temple, and they would come into the role of puzzle solving. It is the temple where the Earth Sage, Laruto, stayed to offer her prayers to the gods, but thanks to Ganondorf's actions, she was killed and the temple was now roaming with enemies.

The group went into the next room after clearing a gap at the entrance, with Luka and the Mario Bros relying on their jumping skills while Link carried Medli and used her to fly across. The room was much wider, having two sets of staircases and broken columns in the middle and there were three Moblins on patrol.

The Mario Bros and Luka volunteered to take out each of the Moblins while Link and Medli went up the stairs, noticing two pressure switches on two different pillars. Link once again used Medli to fly to one of the switches, and then Medli flew by herself to the other one. When the two pressed the switches, the door to the next room opened up, and the trio who took care of the Moblins noticed that and followed Link and Medli to the next room.

There was a beam of light coming out of the ceiling and a faded treasure chest on a short platform on the left which caught the attention of the group. However, before they could get to the light source, Green, Red and Dark ChuChus suddenly popped up from the ground. They took care of the Green and Red ones with ease, but when Link tried to slash through a Dark ChuChu, it instead dissolved into gelatinous particles before reforming back into its original shape again.

"Huh?! What the-?!" his eyes widened.

"That's a Dark ChuChu!" Luka explained. "The only way to defeat it is by shining light at it!"

"Well, I just found out that my harp can reflect light." Medli said, taking out her harp and holding it in front of her as she was standing under the beam of light. "Hold still!" she manages to reflect the light on the Dark ChuChu, turning it into stone.

"Whoa! It turned into stone!" Luigi exclaimed as Link quickly took out the Skull Hammer to shatter the ChuChu statue.

With that, Medli manages to turn the other two Dark ChuChus into stone and then the Mario Brothers shattered them with their hammers. The doors of this room opened up afterwards.

"Well that's _one_ way to deal with Chuchus…" Mario remarked as Link glanced at the faded chest.

"Now what about this treasure chest?" he wondered.

"Simple. Medli just needs to reflect light at it." Luka instructed.

Medli did just that, and the treasure chest became solid again, allowing Link to open it up and pull out the temple's Dungeon Map. Then, they all went into the next room.

This room appeared to be the dungeon's main room, as it featured a giant statue of a face with two enormous eyeholes right above a sea of blue fog that obscured everything from below. It was faint, but Link could see a wooden peg on the right side, so he ordered Medli to shine light at that region to clear away some of the fog, which allowed him to hammer down the peg to open the door on the right.

They all went into the next room, knowing that this was just the beginning. You know, how about we go check how the other group is doing?

* * *

_**At the Wind Temple…**_

The Wind Temple is a forest-themed place in addition to its wind-related theme. Both the walls and the floor were made of stone, though there are some small patches of vegetation around the floor, and fireflies were flying around freely in almost all rooms. It makes sense for this temple to be forest-themed since it relates to the Kokiri, the tribe Fado belongs to.

The group along with Makar made their way out of the dungeon's entrance and entered the first room, where there were two fans blowing strong gusts of wind downwards up ahead, but there was also a spring-like device a few feet away from the group that could definitely mean something.

"I believe if we all stand on this thing, it could spring us ahead!" Yoshi guessed.

"True, but those strong gusts will push us down if we do that." Lana pointed out.

"Hey, I think I can handle those strong winds!" Makar exclaimed. "And maybe there's something on the other side that can deactivate them!"

"Okay then, Makar! We'll wait here." Peach said.

With that, Makar sprouts his leaf propellers and flies towards the wind gusts. They pushed him down, of course, but his small size and light weight prevented him from touching the ground. And thank god he didn't, because at this moment, a Blue Wizzrobe suddenly showed up below Makar's flight path and was ready to fry the Korok with fire magic. Before he could do that, though, Lana was quick to notice the bird wizard and fired magic at him to defeat him.

"What was that just now?" Toad asked.

"A Wizzrobe." Lana explained. "They're wizards who specialize in fire magic. Because of this, Makar would be screwed hadn't I interfered."

"Oh… true…" Yoshi shuddered.

On the other side, Makar saw a switch on the floor next to the door and stepped on it, shutting down the fans blowing the wind gusts.

"He did it!" Peach exclaimed. "Now we can progress!"

The group then climbed on the springboard, weighting it down and letting it launch them forwards, where Peach, Yoshi and Toad pulled out their Deku Leaves to glide while Lana conjured up a Deku Leaf on her own with the Faron Spear to glide alongside them. Once they made it to the other side where Makar was waiting, they all went through the next door.

The next room was a bit narrower, with a pinwheel in the middle and an Armos on both sides, which immediately sprung to life and began hopping towards the group. They first took care of the Armos statues before blowing wind on the pinwheel to open the wall, where there was a single Blade Trap and two mounds of dirt in front of the locked door.

"Hmm, what should we do about those mounds?" Yoshi pondered.

Makar walked over to one and inspected it. "It looks pretty fertile… What if I…" he reaches out and pulls out a seed from who knows where and plants it in the mound. Eventually, a sapling appeared from the mound before nigh immediately growing into a short tree with a few leaves. "Aha!" he exclaimed.

"Wow! It immediately grew into a tree!" Toad exclaimed in surprise as Makar walked over to the other mound and did the same thing. As soon as the second tree grew, the bars blocking the door opened up.

They went through the door, and what they saw up ahead were plateauing cliffs, each with a dirt mound on it. Knowing exactly what to do, the group sent Makar to go and plant seeds on all of the mounds, and once he did that, both blocked doors opened up.

But then, all of a sudden, four Floormasters showed up and surrounded Makar, much to the group's shock.

"Makar! Get out of there!" Toad panicked.

Unfortunately, Makar didn't had time to react as one of the Floormasters was fast enough to grab him and take him away as he screamed for help.

"MAKAR! NO!" Peach cried as the Floormasters disappeared.

"Where did those hands take him?!" Yoshi asked.

"I had a feeling something like this would happen…" Lana muttered. "Don't worry; I can feel that he's close by." she pointed to the door on their right. "Let's head there!"

They went into the door, arriving at the dungeon's main chamber: that being a long cylindrical shaft several stories tall that extends deep down into the temple's depths and has small sections that branch off the main shaft. The group wandered towards the center, taking out the two roaming Peahats before they heard someone calling them:

"Guys! I'm over here!" it was Makar!

They turned to the source of Makar's calling, and saw that the Korok was trapped behind a cage with a large bust. Overjoyed to see that he was okay, Peach, Yoshi and Toad rushed over to him, with Lana following behind.

"Makar! You're alright!" Peach beamed. "Oh, I was so worried!"

"You don't have to worry! I'm okay!" Makar replied before he glanced at the bust. "The stone that blocks the entrance seems extremely heavy. The only way you could move it is if you were to become as heavy as the Great Deku Tree himself. Ahh, if only the Great Deku Tree were here right now…"

"Hmm… Oh!" an idea sparked in Lana's mind. "Perhaps one of my monster summoning might work?" she brings out her Summoning Gate. "Step aside, everyone!" the trio and Makar did just that, and then Lana suddenly summons a smaller version of King Dodongo by dancing, and made it roll into the bust.

To everyone's surprise, once the King Dodongo collided with the bust, it broke down, allowing Makar to walk out of his prison.

"You did it! I'm free!" Makar squealed.

"Well, that was easy!" Lana winked. "Now how about we move on?"

"Yeah!" the rest nodded.

* * *

_**Back at the Earth Temple…**_

The large staircases leading to a door unfolded after the defeat of the two Moblins and Poes. Luigi was a bit freaked out by the Poes since they were ghosts, obviously, but thanks to Medli shining light on them to make them solid, he, along with Link, had no trouble in defeating them.

The group was doing well in the temple so far, as they had solved a fair amount of puzzles involving light, but have so much to do yet in this place. They were now focusing on searching for a certain item that can reflect light like Medli's harp, as without it, they wouldn't be able to get past the area hidden in the large face statue at the dungeon's main chamber.

Since one of the doors required a key to be unlocked, the group went to the door at the unfolded stairs.

The ledge they were on in the next room had a beam of light, while down below were five coffins, which creeped Luigi out.

"I'm getting a bad feeling about these coffins…" he trailed, trembling a bit.

"Then let's approach them with caution." Mario advised before they jumped down the ledge and looked at each of the coffins.

"Hmm… I'll go for that one." Link said and ran up to the first coffin on the left, in which its lid fell over on its own, and behind it… was a pale blue monstrosity that is well known to creep out any Zelda fans out there, especially in this game.

A ReDead.

"I-Is that a…?!" Luigi stuttered.

"Yep. It's a ReDead." Luka said, and then she saw Link slowly walking closer to the ReDead, probably because he didn't know what that was. "Uh oh… Everyone cover your ears NOW." she warned as she covers hers.

The Mario Bros and Medli did as they were told, and just in time too, because…

***AIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!***

The ReDead let out its high-pitched, shrilling banshee-like shriek as its eyes turned red and trotted its way towards the now-paralyzed Link.

"Eeeep!" he yelped. "Guys, help me!"

"We're on it!" Mario said and threw a fireball at the ReDead, remembering about their weakness to fire in his previous adventure. However, the ReDead shrugged the fire off instead. "What? It didn't work?" Mario didn't expect that.

"Yeah, for some reason, ReDeads aren't weak to fire in this game." Luka stated. "They _are _weak to light, though."

"Hm… In that case…" Medli eyed at the beam of light and flew back up to it. "Hang in there, Link!" she aims her harp at the ReDead, stunning it in place. This gave a chance for Link to slash it repeatedly until it collapsed to the ground before exploding.

"Whew… That was close…" Link sighed in relief.

"G-Golly, that ReDead was even scarier than the ones we've seen previously…" Luigi trembled.

"I don't blame you for that, Luigi. Its shriek actually scared me when I was younger." Luka admitted. "Anyway, the correct coffin is the one on the far right."

Link went towards the coffin Luka pointed out, and got a Small Key from it. Desperately wanting to get out of this room and away from ReDeads, the group climbed up the stairs and returned to the previous room, where they used the key to unlock the next door.

However, Medli decided to remain outside of the next room, and for a good reason; the door shut itself as soon as the others entered the room, meaning that a midboss was coming. When they took a few steps ahead, something began to emerge out of the ground: a large skeleton monster carrying a large spiky club.

"**I'm gonna make you pay for death!" **it spoke.

"What is that?!" Link asked.

"Stalfos!" Luka replied.

"What?! I thought they carried a sword and a shield!" Luigi exclaimed, clearly remembering about the sword and shield-wielding Stalfos they first encountered at the Forest Temple.

"This is a different era, Luigi!"

Mario then saw the Stalfos readying its club to swing it at them. "Everyone, get down!" he warned, and everyone ducked in time to avoid the Stalfos' swing, and it stopped in a position that makes it look like it's having trouble standing straight with its club.

The heroes took advantage at this to start attacking the Stalfos, dealing a good chunk of damage to it, only for all of them to get knocked back when it suddenly swung its club again, but was now moving around like a top.

"Oooow… My back…" Luigi groaned.

"Oh yeah… I kind of forgot about this attack…" Luka groaned.

Seeing the spinning Stalfos approaching, the heroes quickly rolled out of the way, staying down until the Stalfos stopped swinging, getting dizzy from its attack. With that, they quickly got back up and dealt a heavy blow to the Stalfos, disembodying it completely and its head began hopping around to try to flee from them, only for Mario to crush it with his hammer, resulting in the remains of the Stalfos' body to explode as well.

"Well, that was something." Mario remarked. But when they thought it was over…

"**What are you doing out there?!" **a voice from another Stalfos suddenly came, and then the room's two coffins opened up as two more Stalfos came out from each of them.

"**Yeah, we're trying to sleep in here!" **the other Stalfos spoke. **"What have you done to our brother?!"**

"**This ain't a place for playing, chumps! And we're gonna show you that the hard way!" **the two Stalfos trotted over to the heroes. **"You're gonna wish you died instead of our brother!"**

"Th-There's more?!" Luigi stuttered.

"At least they're not large like the previous one." Link said. "We can take 'em!"

"You said it right, Link!" Luka exclaimed as they decided to split up to take each Stalfos.

Mario and Luigi easily destroyed their Stalfos' body thanks to their hammers easily shattering the bones, and when the head begins to hop away, Luigi did the same thing Mario did and crushed it with his hammer. Link and Luka went for the other Stalfos and dodged its first club swing.

"Link! Use your bombs at it!" Luka instructed.

"Good advice!" Link replied and pulled out a Bomb, and when the Stalfos was trying to maintain balance after the swing, Link placed the bomb next to it. The bomb exploded and the Stalfos' body immediately crumbled, and then Luka quickly created a small ring of magma around the hopping head to limit its route of escaping, giving Link the chance to smash it with the Skull Hammer.

Once the final Stalfos went poof, the stairs leading up to the dungeon's main item lowered. The group walked up the stairs and Link opened the treasure chest on top, taking out the Mirror Shield.

"A shiny shield! Just what we needed!" he exclaimed as he immediately strapped the new shield on his back.

"That's the Mirror Shield!" Luka explained. "With this item, we can go further into the dungeon!"

* * *

_**Back at the Wind Temple…**_

Like with Medli, Makar decided to stay behind as Lana, Peach, Yoshi and Toad just opened a locked door with a Small Key and got into a cylindrical room with raised platforms around the walls. The door locked itself with bars from behind them, giving them an uneasy feeling about this room.

"I can feel the presence of someone in here…" Lana trailed suspiciously.

As if on cue, a strange noise came, tensing up the group as a different kind of Wizzrobe showed up in the middle of the room. It bore a golden crown and an orange robe, symbolizing its status as a powerful Wizzrobe.

"Oh god… A Summoning Wizzrobe." Lana glared.

"Summoning…? Let me guess, it can summon monsters?" Toad guessed.

The Summoning Wizzrobe cackles at the group and then throws its arms into the air, summoning a normal Wizzrobe, a Moblin and a Darknut before teleporting away.

"Yep." Yoshi nodded.

"I just had to say it…" Toad muttered.

"I can handle the Summoning Wizzrobe. You guys deal with the monsters it summoned!" Lana hollered.

"Got it!" Peach nodded.

Lana scanned the room to search for the Summoning Wizzrobe while Peach was dealing with the normal Wizzrobe, Toad went for the Darknut and Yoshi went for the Moblin. Once Lana found the Summoning Wizzrobe's location, she barely locked eyes with it as two Peahats suddenly appeared in front of her. They charged towards her, only for them to slam into a wall created by the sorceress before she snapped her fingers to make it shatter to defeat them. Unfortunately, those Peahats proved to be a good distraction for her since the Summoning Wizzrobe was gone from its current location.

"_Shoot, I lost it…_" she thought. At the same time, the trio had just defeated the summoned monsters.

"Where is that wizard?" Yoshi wondered.

"I just lost it… but it should appear back soon." Lana said as they looked around the room to search for it.

"Up there!" Peach pointed to a platform where the Summoning Wizzrobe showed up and it immediately shot fireballs at them, but they dodged them.

"You won't be getting away this time!" Lana declared, conjuring magic on her hand. "HAAAAH!" she releases a magic blast from it at the Summoning Wizzrobe as it was too slow to react and was hit by it, ending its reign of terror.

With the Summoning Wizzrobe defeated, a treasure chest showed up in the middle as the group opened it and took out the Hookshot.

"Hey, isn't that the Hookshot?" Toad asked.

"It is!" Lana exclaimed. "We'll hand it to Link once we reunite. For now on, let's keep moving further into the dungeon!"

* * *

Both groups are doing well in both dungeons, it seems. But what scary monster awaits each of them in the depths that took the life away from the previous sages?

**To be continued...**

* * *

**I don't know why, but when I was younger, I thought that the sound that the ReDeads make in this game sounded like an elephant's wail to me. Now I'm not sure if I should find this amusing or scary... Despite this, I did get scared by their appearances alone. **

**I was originally going to put the boss fights against Jalhalla and Molgera in here too, but I got tired. So I'm saving these for the next chapter!**


	14. The New Chosen Ones

**Here we have the next chapter! **

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 14: The New Chosen Ones**

The rest of the Earth Temple's progression was definitely made easier thanks to the Mirror Shield, as it allowed the group to access the basement level. Of course, more scary-looking enemies were roaming the following rooms, especially Floormasters, Blue Bubbles, and Poes. There was also a large room filled with mirrors that the group had to push and pull in order to reflect light all the way to the other end, where there was another giant face statue.

Eventually, they all made it to the boss door, Big Key in hands, so they were ready to rid of the Earth Temple of evil.

"Everyone, I think I'll stay here." Medli said. "If my ancestor died to the enemy behind this door, then I don't want to risk having the same thing happening to me."

"Fair enough." Link nodded, and turned to the others. "Everyone ready?"

"Ready." the trio nodded back, and then they unlocked the door and went through.

Strange noises were already filling up the boss room even after the door shut tight, as the heroes looked ahead to see… 15 Poes running around in a panic. But when they noticed the presence of the heroes in the room, the Poes stopped and suddenly turned abruptly to glance at them, making Luigi jump in fright.

The room turned dark all of a sudden, as a certain mask appeared in the center as the Poes gathered themselves into that mask. The mask started rumbling before a huge Poe materialized from it, and then a lantern appeared on its hand before laughing.

"Wh-What the?!" Luigi stuttered.

"That's Jalhalla!" Luka said. "We just have to reflect light at it and send it into the spikes!"

"That sounds easier said than done!" Link exclaimed as Jalhalla began to inhale while placing its lantern in front of its mouth.

"Incoming!" Mario shouted just as Jalhalla proceeded to breathe smoky flames from the lantern at their direction. Luckily, the group dodged the flames in time.

Jalhalla didn't stop there, though; seeing the group fleeing, it decided to send fireballs from its lantern next… and one of the fireballs actually managed to hit Luigi.

"YOOOOW!" he yelled, running around with his rump on fire. "HOT HOT HOT!"

"Oh, this isn't looking good…!" Mario trailed once he saw his brother running around and then everyone saw Jalhalla ready to bodyslam the younger Mario Brother.

"Link! The light!" Luka hollered.

"Oh! Right!" Link quickly rushed to the nearest beam of light and reflected the light towards Jalhalla, stunning it and turning it solid. "Yes!"

Jalhalla panicked when it took notice of its body turning solid, so in a last effort, it sucked in a high amount of air before letting it loose in an attempt to send the heroes into the spikes around the room. However, the group kept running forward to avoid being blown back, and the strong gust of air ironically even got rid of the fire from Luigi's rump.

After that, Jalhalla fell to the ground in exhaustion, giving the chance for Link to lift it up, which was easy thanks to the Power Bracelets, and chuck it right towards the spikes as Jalhalla rolled into them and exploded back into the 15 Poes from before as they began to run around in a panic.

"Now! Let's scatter and defeat all of them!" Luka instructed.

"Got it!" Mario nodded as he punched two Poes.

"Alright, all of you are gonna pay… especially for burning my bottom!" Luigi growled, using his electric powers to stun five Poes before defeating those.

Link did a spin attack to defeat a group of four Poes while Luka kicked two more. Only two of them remained, so Link quickly slashed through them. When the last Poe was defeated, Jalhalla's mask suddenly showed up in the middle of the room and looked around, only to panic when it saw that there were no more Poes left. It then attempted to flee, but a beam of light shot down on it, causing it to stop moving before falling back to the floor where it broke apart.

As the heroes celebrated their victory, the lights in the room went dim as the triangle in the middle of the Triforce symbol on the Crest of Hyrule on the floor began to sparkle in a blue light.

"Whew… Glad that's over." Luigi sighed in relief.

"Yes." Mario nodded. "Is your… um, bottom feeling alright?"

"Never better."

"Hey, look!" Luka called out, pointing to the spot where Jalhalla's mask fell and crumbled. There was a purple sharp crystalline piece lying on the floor. "This must be a Purple Star Piece!"

"Oh, neat!" Mario exclaimed. "That means we have two pieces of one of the Grand Stars, right?"

"Exactly!"

"Guys!" a voice called out as the heroes turned around to see Medli coming in. "Good job for defeating the guardian of the temple." she turns to Link, "Now, Link. Let's start our prayer for the Master Sword right away."

Link nodded in response and set the Master Sword right into the glowing tile before taking out the Wind Waker in order to start conducting the Earth God's Lyric with Medli, who had her harp ready.

Luka and the Mario Brothers stood in the back, watching the two play the song together, and were shocked to see that the spirit of Laruto also showed up to accompany it. A beautiful and serene melody filled the entire room as a result, and once it was done, the Triforce symbol suddenly shone in gold.

Link then walks up to the Master Sword and picks it up, as the two wings on the sword's grip spread out. The hero rose the sword to the light, a part of its power now restored.

"Link, as you and the others might know, the power to repel evil is not yet fully awakened." Medli said. "To complete the awakening of the Master Sword, you need the prayers of the Sage of the Wind Temple."

"We know that." Link replied. "We just need to wait for Lana to warp us there." and right on cue, a golden gate suddenly showed up from behind him. "Oh. Guess she and the others got rid of the monster in there."

"That was pretty fast!" Luka exclaimed. "_I mean, Molgera takes quite a while to defeat compared to Jalhalla…_"

"Well, we should get going. But, what are you going to do now, Medli?"

"I will remain here and continue to pray." Medli replied. "I must do that in order to make sure the power of the Master Sword remains in it."

Link nodded back in understanding, before he and the others walked into the gate before it disappeared, leaving Medli alone.

"Good luck, everyone…" she spoke. "And please watch over Prince Komali for me…"

* * *

_**Some time earlier, with the Wind Temple group…**_

***KABOOOM!***

The final stone seal crumbled before the group after Makar played the Wind God's Aria, revealing the boss door of the dungeon at last. Now they were ready to face the boss of this place, the same one who had slain Fado a long time ago.

"At last, we're here!" Toad exclaimed.

"I'll be staying outside since it's much safer." Makar said. "Don't worry, I'll be cheering for you!"

The rest of the group nodded before unlocking the door and going in. On the other side where the door shut tight, the group came face to face with a pit, so they jumped down to land… on sand. Lots and lots of sand was filling the bottom with the exception of the circular platform in the middle bearing the Crest of Hyrule.

Suddenly, the whole place began to rumble as more sand came from somewhere in the ceiling, eventually covering up the platform in the very middle due to the sand accumulating. The group's eyes widened in horror as the pile of sand in the middle rose up, and from it, a giant flying worm-like creature burst out, letting out horrifying noises as it flew around the room before diving back into the sand.

"What was that… giant worm thing?!" Yoshi asked.

"The guardian of the Wind Temple… Its name is Molgera." Lana replied as she got into a fighting stance. "Get ready, everyone!"

Molgera soon popped its long jaws from out of the sand as its current started dragging the group towards the monster. As they were getting closer to Molgera, they could see something long and purple sticking out from inside the jaws, in which they guessed it was its tongue and it could be the weak spot.

"If only Link was here, he could easily cut off that thing's tongue…" Toad stated.

"Even so, we can't actually approach it or it could eat us whole." Peach said. "So how do we get its tongue closer to us?"

"That's simple!" Lana took out the Hookshot. "With the Hookshot!" she then aims the Hookshot at the tongue and latched its hook on it, bringing it closer to them. "Now! Attack, attack!"

The group proceeded to deliver a few blows to the tongue until Molgera recoiled from the pain and dove into the sand, but by doing this, it also called out its… uh, babies.

"Huh?!" Yoshi didn't expect that.

"They're Molgera Larvae!" Lana explained, unleashing a blast of magic to get rid of them.

"Um, whooooa…!" Toad suddenly felt the sand rising up below his feet.

"Oh, no… Toad, get out of there!" Peach called out, knowing exactly what will come out.

As of immediately, Toad rushed away from the spot he was on just in time as Molgera burst out of it and started flying around. Then, more Molgera Larvae came out of the sand as the group proceeded to take them all out. Then, when the group took care of all the Larvae, Molgera came swooping down with its jaws open wide in an attempt to swallow the group whole, but they ran out of the way, and Molgera dove back into the sand instead.

"That was close!" Toad exclaimed.

"Alright, if we can't cut off its tongue, perhaps we can stab it somehow?" Yoshi suggested.

"Oh, of course!" Lana exclaimed. "I have my spear for this!"

It was then that Molgera's jaws popped out again, catching everyone's attention.

"There it is!" Peach pointed while Molgera called out for more Molgera Larvae to attack the group.

"Gee, how many babies does this thing have?" Toad questioned.

"Beats me." Yoshi shrugged as one of the Molgera Larvae attempted to pounce on him, but he jumped out of the way in time.

"You all handle the Larvae! Leave Molgera to me!" Lana instructed as the others nodded, and then she used the Hookshot again to bring up Molgera's tongue close up to her as she had her spear ready. "It's over for you, dirty bug!" she declared before stabbing right in the middle of the tongue's tip.

Crying out in pain, Molgera flew up in the air frantically as its body stiffened before bursting into sand. A certain orange crystalline shard also dropped down from the explosion as the group was celebrating while the sand drained to reveal the circular platform in the middle again.

"Yipee! We did it!" Yoshi cheered.

"And look what that thing also dropped!" Toad said, picking up the orange shard.

"An Orange Star Piece!" Peach exclaimed. "We're close to getting the Grand Stars back together!"

"Hey!" Makar's voice came as they turned around to see him coming in. "I just knew you could do it!"

"It was nothing!" Lana replied. "Now, time to bring the others right here!" she opens up a golden gate, the very same one shown previously, and then Link, Mario, Luigi, and Luka walked out of it.

"Hi there!" Luka waved. "How was the fight against Molgera?"

"It went smoothly!" Toad replied. "What did you guys fight at the Earth Temple?"

"A giant ghost…" Luigi muttered.

"And we also got this from it." Mario showed the Purple Star Piece. "I assume you got another one too?"

"We did." Peach nodded, showing the Orange Star Piece. "This means we have two pieces of each Grande Star, thus leaving 18 pieces remaining in total."

"I wonder where we'll find the remaining pieces?" Yoshi pondered.

"Well, I'm sure you'll find the rest eventually." Lana said. "For now, let's at last restore the Master Sword back to its full power!"

"Oh, right! I almost forgot!" Makar exclaimed, taking out his violin. "Link, let's begin our prayer right now!"

"Right on!" Link nodded and placed the Master Sword in the middle of the Crest like before and took out his Wind Waker.

Everyone stood back and watched Link and Makar play the Wind God's Aria together, and as with Medli, the ghost of the former sage, Fado, also showed up to accompany. A cheerful and energetic melody filled the entire room as a result, with more power being added to the Master Sword.

Link then walked over to the Master Sword and picked it up, and this time, the gem in between its wing-shaped guards turned golden and the blade was shimmering in pure white, showing the Triforce symbol in the transition between hilt and blade.

Feeling victorious after accomplishing such a rather daunting task, Link rose up the complete Master Sword into the air. Luka, Lana and the Mario cast smiled at that, now that they're seeing the Master Sword they always knew.

"At last, the Master Sword once again houses the power to repel evil." Lana spoke. "The sword of the one true hero is revived at last!"

"I have to say, it does look much better than it was before." Link smiled, looking at his new blade. "This truly gives the impression of a sacred sword."

"Yes. The sacred sword is now fully complete." Makar said. "…And I can feel that my ancestors are most satisfied." a column of light then shone out from the Triforce symbol on the ground. "I shall continue praying to the gods here. Everyone, please step into the light and return aboveground. May the winds of fortune be at your back."

The group nodded, and Makar watched as they all walked into the light and levitated before disappearing.

"Thank you, guys…" he whispered. "And I hope you're proud of me too, Great Deku Tree…"

* * *

The group was teleported back to Headstone Island's beach, and then Lana walked a few steps away from the others while holding her grimoire close to her chest.

"Well, it has been fun helping you out…" she said. "But now it's time for me to part."

"Wait, really?" Link asked.

"I only said that I would be helping you in restoring the power back to the Master Sword, remember? Plus, I have some duties to fulfill as the Guardian of Time."

"Oh… I understand. But will we meet again, Lana?"

She turned around and looked at Link with a sweet smile on her face. "Link… I will always be watching you!" "_And your several incarnations too…_" she thought, before facing Luka and the Mario cast. "As always, make sure you stay close to Link and save this land."

"We'll do, Lana." Mario nodded.

"Good!" Lana makes a golden gate appear. "I wish you the best of luck in defeating Ganondorf!" she waved and walked into the gate before it closed.

"Lana really was a big help to us." Toad said. "She basically guided us throughout the Wind Temple just like Luka does!"

"It makes sense since she knows about this world!" Luka exclaimed. "As for me, you already know why!"

Everyone couldn't help but chuckle at this. Then, Link looked up ahead at the distance and saw the King of Red Lions looking a bit grim.

"Hey guys, maybe we should go see the King." he spoke up. "He doesn't look too happy to me…"

"Oh dear… What could have happened?" Peach wondered as the they ran over to the King who looked up to them upon noticing their presence.

"Everyone, I have troubling news…" he trailed. "Ganondorf has not shown himself above the seas since Valoo unleashed his fiery wrath upon him." this made the group gasp.

"Y-You mean… He could be in Hyrule right now?!" Luigi stuttered, fearing the worst.

"I'm afraid so. And what's worse, there is not a creature stirring in his base of operations in this world…the Forsaken Fortress." the King paused for a bit as everyone else had worried looks on their faces before he continued, "…I cannot imagine how it is possible, and yet I cannot shake this foreboding feeling I have about the princess, Zelda."

"This is bad…" Yoshi frowned. "And the entrance back to Hyrule is closed for us… What should we do?"

"There's only one thing for us to do right now…" the King spoke firmly. "Everyone, you must search for all the Triforce Shards and the remaining Star Pieces so that we can head back to Hyrule without delay!"

"So… this means that we have to complete the Triforce of Courage and the Sages' Grand Stars, right?" Mario guessed as the King nodded in response.

"But they're scattered across the Great Sea, aren't they?" Link asked. "Where should we start?"

"No worries! You've all got a Wind Waker gamer right here!" Luka winked. "I know all the exact locations of the Triforce Shards! And I'm sure that the Star Pieces might be in the same locations where the Shards are too!"

"Guess we're really lucky to have Luka with us." Peach smiled. "What are the locations?"

"Well, the Triforce was split into eight fragments in total. Three of them are in sunken treasures, and the remaining five are in different islands that require some certain tasks to perform. I suggest we get the sunken Shards first, since we need to find three Triforce Charts in order to locate them."

"…This is going to take a long while, isn't it?" Link sweatdropped.

"Yep…" Luka nodded. "You know, I don't think the Author is willing to do the whole progress of us just obtaining the Shards and the Star Pieces, so how about a time skip?"

Yes. That'll be highly appreciated there, Luka. Sooo, here it is!

* * *

_**A LONG time later…**_

If you want to know what the group had to do, here's a summary of it: first, they searched for the three Triforce Sharts and had Tingle translate them in order to find the locations of the sunken treasures that held each a Triforce Shard. One of the three sunken treasures also had the remaining 3 Blue Star Pieces that would form the Grand Star of Water, which was the one found at Greatfish Isle.

Next, they went for Private Oasis and by using the Cabana Deed they had in the beginning of their journey, they ventured into the cabana's basement to find the next Shard and the 3 Green Star Pieces that formed the Grand Star of Forest. Then, they went to Outset Island and took on the Savage Labyrinth to get the fifth Shard and the 3 Yellow Star Pieces that combined into the Grand Star of Light.

The next step was a little time-consuming as they first had to find the Ghost Ship Chart to make it appear somewhere in a certain island depending on the moon phrase. Once they found said Ghost Ship, they boarded it and fought off a couple of enemies to earn them the sixth Shard and the 3 Purple Star Pieces that united to form the Grand Star of Shadow.

The last two Shards and Pieces were found in two different underground labyrinths. One was at Stone Watcher Island, where the Star Pieces found were the Orange ones, completing the Grand Star of Spirit, whereas the other one was at Overlook Island, which was guarding the last Shard and the 3 Red Star Pieces that formed into the Grand Star of Fire.

At last, with the Triforce of Courage and the Sages' Grand Stars fully completed, the heroes wasted no time in sailing back to the Tower of the Gods and finally head back to Hyrule.

"Well done, everyone. You must show the Triforce piece and the Grand Stars you have assembled to the gods." the King instructed.

With that, Link pulls out the Triforce of Courage from his inventory and rose it up to the sky. At the same time, Luka and the Mario cast each rose up a Grand Star above their heads. Luka had the Grand Star of Spirit, Mario had the Grand Star of Fire, Luigi had the Grand Star of Shadow, Peach had the Grand Star of Light, Yoshi had the Grand Star of Water, and Toad had the Grand Star of Forest.

The Triforce piece and the Grand Stars all shone brightly in gold, green, red, blue, purple, orange and yellow as the ring of light that led back to Hyrule showed up in front of the group. However, as soon as the entrance has opened, the sacred objects they held up mysteriously vanished.

"Eh? Where did the Triforce and the Grand Stars go?" Yoshi wondered.

"No idea, but for some reason… the back of my left hand feels strangely warm." Link mused as he slowly lowered his left hand… and gave out a silent gasp at what he saw on the back of it.

"Link? What is… Oh!" Toad exclaimed as the rest had the same reaction once they saw what Link had in his left hand: the Triforce of Courage itself!

"Guys… It's not just him! Look at our right hands!" Luigi said once he took notice of the strange faint purple light on the back of his right hand.

The others did the same, and their eyes widened in shock as they saw that they now bear the crests of each Sage's Medallions on the backs of their right hands! Each crest was giving off a faint glow that matched the color of its corresponding Grand Star (Luka had the Spirit Medallion's symbol glowing a faint orange, for example, and so on).

"Oh! What is this?" the King awed. "Your hands… the Triforce piece and the power of the Six Sages sealed in the Grand Stars now dwell within you!"

"They do…" Peach breathed. "What does this mean?"

"They're both proof that you are indeed the new true Hero and the new Six Sages, respectively. Link, you have controlled the wind and crossed the seas, while the rest of you relied heavily on teamwork and assistance, and here, near the end of your quest, the power of the gods and the sages have been bestowed upon you…"

"Wow…" Mario whispered.

"Surely, from this moment on, you Heroes from Another World shall be known as the new Six Sages… and as for Link, he shall be known as the Hero of Winds…"

"Hero of Winds…" Link repeated. "I like that!"

"Link! Hero of Winds! And Six Sages! Go forth! To Hyrule! To Zelda's side!"

"Yes, sir!" everyone else replied in unison and went straight for the ring of light.

**To be continued…**

* * *

**Personally, I think this might be the weakest chapter in the story. Even though the Triforce Shard quest was made less tedious in the HD remake, there's no way I was going to include that in here since I had nothing in my mind to make it different.**

**I'll try my best to make the next chapter more interesting! Plus, we're near the end of this story! See you then!**


	15. Ganon's Tower

**Just this and one more chapter to end this story!**

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

**Chapter 15: Ganon's Tower**

Now that they were back in Hyrule, the heroes' first priority was to get to Princess Zelda before Ganondorf does. They hopped out of the boat and went into the castle.

But when they came back inside, they noticed that there was rubble around the stairs leading down to the secret passage under the statue of the Hero of Time. And speaking of said statue, it was now broken down into pieces, leaving nothing but only the legs. It appears that this might have been the work of Ganondorf, so the heroes didn't have much time left!

They rushed down to the chamber of the sword, hoping that Zelda was still safe and sound down there. To their relief, they spotted her with her back turned up ahead unharmed, leading them all to smile as they went over to her.

Just then, as soon as Zelda turned around… she suddenly disappears in a flash of light, much to everyone's shock.

"What the?!" Link flinched. "Zelda! Where'd you go?!"

But then, another flash of light came from behind Link as he turned around, and gasped as he saw that Luka and the Mario cast were now trapped in large colorful crystals. Each of the crystals were colored to match the color of each corresponding Sage.

"Wh-What is this?!" Luigi panicked.

"I don't know!" Luka exclaimed. "This is something completely new to me!"

Then, the six crystals began to rise into the air as Link could do nothing but watch horrified.

"No!" Peach cried. "Link, help us!" those were her last words before they all vanished into thin air.

"Guys!" Link cried out. He was the only one standing inside the chamber now.

"_**You have deceived yourself…" **_Ganondorf's voice suddenly echoed around the chamber. _**"Did you think you'd be safe inside the castle? Foolish…"**_

"_That voice… Ganondorf…_" Link thought.

"_**Now that my power has been restored, there is no safe haven for you! I have taken your precious Zelda and the Sages. And here, you shall fall into eternal slumber!"**_

As Ganondorf's voice disappeared, flames suddenly surrounded the dais, catching Link by surprise, but not as much as when two heavily armored Darknuts dropped down from the hole in the ceiling. The two Darknuts then attempted to swing down at Link, but he backflipped away in time.

"_All of my friends are gone now… I have no choice but to fight them myself!_" Link thought, determination filling his face as he drew out his sword and shield to fight off against the two Mighty Darknuts.

The one on the left slashed down at Link, but he rolled behind it and did a parry attack on its back to get rid of its armor, and then he rose his shield to block the blow from the other Mighty Darknut in time. The same one then slashed again, but this time, Link leapt over it and parried its head, as the non-armored Mighty Darknut was also caught in this attack, resulting in both of them losing their helmets.

Now that he was behind the Mighty Darknut without the helmet, Link took the chance to quickly strike it from behind to also get rid of its armor. Without their armor, both of the Mighty Darknuts growled in anger and swung their swords horizontally at Link, only for him to backflip away and use a spin attack to slash both away as they dropped their swords, then Link rushed over to one of them and impaled it in the chest to defeat it.

The remaining Mighty Darknut saw the death of his comrade and angrily runs up to Link to do a spin kick at him, but he blocked it with his shield to knock the Mighty Darknut down to the floor, and before it could get up, Link impaled it in the chest as well.

Once the Mighty Darknut went poof, the flames surrounding the chamber went out. But Link had no time to rest now; Ganondorf has taken all of his friends! It was now up to the Hero of Winds by himself to venture into the evil king's lair hidden somewhere out in Hyrule and save the entire land.

* * *

Exiting the chamber, Link went to the exit on the opposite side of the entrance, where the electric barriers that were blocking said exit disappeared, allowing him to move on. Outside, Link picked up his speed as he crossed the bridge… only to be knocked away by a barrier.

"Ow…" he groaned as he got up. "I must of have slammed into the barrier the King told me about…" he spoke to himself. The good question now is: how is he going to get past this barrier?

"…_Master…" _suddenly, a strange feminine voice spoke to him from the Master Sword. _"…Master Link…"_

"Huh?" Link's eyes widened as he looked back to see the Master Sword glowing. "_Was that voice coming from the sword?_" he thought.

"_Raise your sword skywards, and swing it down…" _the voice instructed.

Link takes out the sword. "_I don't know HOW is the sword talking, but if what it told me is how I can remove this barrier, then I'll do it!_"

With a fierce expression, Link rose his sword up to point it at the sky as a glow of blue energy channeled through the blade, and then swung it down. A beam was shot out of the blade, touching the barrier surrounding the entirely of Hyrule Castle. The barrier froze and condensed… before shattering like glass.

"_Woah, it worked!_" Link thought in amazement. "_Thanks, sword!_" he glanced at the Master Sword before moving on ahead, taking his first steps into the lush green fields of Hyrule as he followed the dirt road to Ganondorf's lair.

The road ahead was a perilous one, as it had Peahats, Red Chuchus, Moblins, and a single Darknut plus a few Keese guarding the gaps that led to Ganon's Tower. Despite being alone, Link easily took out all the monsters, and then used the Hookshot to cross the gaps to reach the Tower's passage.

"Hang on, my friends. I'm coming." Link spoke to himself, determination filling his face before he stepped into the passage.

The young hero quickly passed by the simplistic entrance that only consisted of marble pillars holding up the ceiling and skulls on the floor, and felt the hot air around him immediately after opening the door to the next room, as it was circular with an enormous pool of lava below. A circular platform was above the lava pool, and connecting it were four wooden bridges, each leading to a door, and there was also a passageway leading to a big door at the room's opposite end.

By checking the big door and noticing its symbols carved on it, each of them bearing a striking resemblance to the bosses he and his friends fought before, Link knew he had to fight against these bosses again, and he certainly wasn't looking forward to that, especially the fact that, once again, he's alone this time.

Even so, he was not going to let that stop him, considering that he now knows how to take down each boss this time. And so, it began the hero's first trial inside Ganon's Tower: to defeat all of the four bosses again, only by himself.

* * *

_**Later…**_

It was a tough job, but Link had managed to defeat all of the bosses, who all looked black and white, and so the big door broke down, revealing a dark passage up ahead. He had not located any of his friends while inside the rooms leading to each boss, so Link hoped that they would be somewhere up ahead. He then went inside the new passage, climbing up a staircase roaming with Miniblins to reach the Tower's main hall.

Compared to the previous room, the main hall was pretty dark. The room was circular and tall, just like the last one, but the walls were more stylized, forming murals. Candelabras were hung on the walls, providing a little bit of light in the room, and all around the hero in a circle were large push-up doors.

"Hmm… Which door should I go to?" Link mused to himself as he noticed that the two available doors had no difference between them, so nothing in here gave him a hint about what to do.

After debating with himself for a little while, Link opted to go for the door on the right. It took him to a room with four candelabras on the halls, each highlighting the carving of a boss… and a deep pit up ahead, which made Link gulp nervously. He spotted a stone tablet at the side of the pit, so he first went up to it and read it:

'The sword hilts of my servants who lurk deep in the darkness shall be the guideposts that point to me.'

"I wonder what could this mean?" Link mused, placing a finger on his chin. Looking at the pit, he felt that he had to head down there, so taking what courage he could muster, Link jumped down the pit, falling down into the darkness below.

* * *

After he finally landed on ground again, Link could feel a sinister aura lingering around this new room he was in. And when he took a few steps forward, it seemed that his suspicions were correct.

"**Welcome to your grave…" **because a familiar voice suddenly echoed around the room as Link looked around until he eyed at the source of the voice: Phantom Ganon.

Seeing Phantom Ganon's free hand raised up while charging an energy ball, Link quickly drew out his sword just in time as the phantom launched the ball at him, but he reflected it back. The game of volley continued on for a bit until Phantom Ganon was struck by the ball and Link slashed through its body to defeat it.

However, as soon as Phantom Ganon disappeared, its sword suddenly tumbled to the floor, having the hilt pointing at once of the many doors in the room. Noticing this, Link recalled about what the stone tablet he read previously said.

"Sword hilts… shall be the guideposts… That's it!" Link exclaimed, pounding his palm in realization.

With that, he went through the door that the sword's hilt was pointing to… and he found himself facing against _another _Phantom Ganon.

"**No sword of all things will ever defeat me!" **it taunted. Link sighed in exasperation, knowing that he'll have to face against who knows how many Phantom Ganons and follow their swords' hilts in order to escape this maze.

Basically, he was being taunted in every new room he entered.

"**Feel the wrath of my ****blade!"** was the one from the next room.

"**Stay still so I can kill you!" **the next one.

"**All right. No more games!" **next one.

After that, Link finally made it to the last room of the maze. Unfortunately, he had to face one more Phantom Ganon in order to get out.

"**You'll never find my weakness!" **it said.

As you would expect, Link destroyed it with ease, causing a treasure chest to appear in the middle of the room as his eyes perked up with interest. He went over to the chest and opened it up, taking out the Light Arrows. Link only had time to look at the Arrows in awe before he was suddenly enveloped in a bright light and disappeared.

The hero reappeared back at the main hall, and before he could wonder what to do next to get rid of the wall up ahead, yet _another _Phantom Ganon showed up… and this one wasn't looking too happy.

"**THIS IS THE END FOR YOU!" **it roared as it started to charge up a red orb in its hands.

"_Alright, let's give those new arrows a try!_" Link thought as he quickly took out his Bow and attached a Light Arrow to it before aiming at Phantom Ganon.

"**No, wait! Not those!" **as soon as Phantom Ganon saw the glow of the Light Arrow radiating from Link's Bow, its anger immediately shifted to fear as it started to back away, but it was no use and thus it was struck by the sacred arrow. **"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" **it screamed as it was engulfed by the arrow's light before vanishing in a hiss of gold and only the sword was left behind.

"Holy Hylia…" Link awed, amazed by the power of the Light Arrow. "Perhaps these might help me take down Ganondorf!"

Glancing at the sword Phantom Ganon left behind, Link picks it up, and on instinct, he throws it at the wall. Eventually, the wall radiated with bright lights before it dissipated, revealing more path up ahead.

Going through the path, the hero was met with another staircase roamed with enemies. Smirking, Link proceeded to fire Light Arrows at every single enemy up ahead that has made the mistake to try to pick a fight with him. As a result, the staircase was completely free of enemies, and all that's left is the final door. It was now or never.

Zelda. Ganondorf. The Six Sages. They're definitely lying at the other side of the door. Feeling ready than ever, Link creaked open the door with a push and went in.

* * *

Link was met with eerie silence on the other side, slowly walking into the tall room and waded into the pool of shallow water. However, he stopped midway when he noticed the presence of someone on a king-sized bed in the middle of the room behind two slightly transparent silky curtains. It was Zelda, peacefully sleeping on said bed.

But that wasn't all; Link glanced upwards and saw something that caused his eyes to widen in shock. A few feet in the air from the outside of the curtains, there stood Luka and the Mario cast still trapped in their crystal prisons, but they now appeared to be unconscious.

"Do you sleep still?" just then, Link heard a familiar voice from inside the curtains. Standing next to Zelda… was Ganondorf. The hatred towards the man immediately kicked in for Link, as he furrowed his eyebrows in anger and held his sword aloft… "Wait!" but he was forced to stop when Ganondorf said that. "Do not be so hasty, boy…"

"_What is he…?_" Link thought, still keeping a firm look on his face as he watches Ganondorf reach his hand with the Triforce of Power's mark towards Zelda's forehead.

"I can see this girl's dreams…" he mused. "Oceans… Oceans… Oceans… Oceans… Oceans as far as the eye can see. They are vast seas… None can swim across them… They yield no fish to catch…" his tone slowly shifts into anger. "What did the king of Hyrule say? …That the gods sealed Hyrule away?" then he turns to face Link. "And they left behind people who would one day awaken Hyrule?!"

Link could see the look of frustration on the man's face. That sent a chill down his spine that made him unable to perform any other action as he just stood there, listening to Ganondorf rambling on:

"How ridiculous… So many pathetic creatures, scattered across a handful of islands, drifting on this sea like fallen leaves on a forgotten pool… What can they possibly hope to achieve? Don't you see? All of you…" he then lets out the most furious yell possible. "YOUR GODS DESTROYED YOU!"

Despite that intimidating tone, Link braced himself and waited, not speaking a single word as he kept his glare at Ganondorf.

"I have been waiting for you, boy." Ganondorf said. "For one like you… Yes… For the hero." a wicked grin formed on his face. "Do not betray my expectations."

Suddenly, sounds of sickening crunches came from Ganondorf's body as his arms grew outwards and slumped on the floor, along with his shoulders jolting out. With a blood-curdling scream, Ganondorf increases in size until he was as tall as the curtains as Link watched in horror. When the curtains rose upwards, Ganondorf was now… a giant puppet, complete with strings. For some strange reason, the bed Zelda was sleeping on and the crystals trapping Luka and the Mario cast were gone, thus turning this entire room into an arena.

"Holy Hylia…" Link whispered, before shaking it off and stood brave to fight off the puppet.

"**You can never hope to defeat me! Especially with that puny little sword!" **Puppet Ganon mocked. **"I will crush you!"** he rose one of his arms into the air to smash Link to the ground with it, but the hero darted to the left to avoid it. **"Ha ha ha! Where are your gods now?"**

Link glanced at the puppet's strings as memories from when he fought against Kalle Demos whizzed through his mind: Puppet Ganon is supported by strings, which works just like… Kalle Demos' vines!

"…_That's it!_" the hero thought, immediately bringing out his Boomerang and aiming it at the strings. Unfortunately, Puppet Ganon knew what Link was up to and quickly intervened by summoning a flock of Keese towards him. "_Well, crap…_" Link had to stop to take care of the Keese.

"**Be ready for it, boy!" **Puppet Ganon teased and then he spun his body around to try to whack Link with his tail.

"Whoa!" Link yelled as he ducked to avoid being hit by the tail's orb once he was done dealing with the Keese. But since it was now risky to approach Puppet Ganon while he was doing that attack, Link decided to run away from out of range.

"**Stop running, you coward boy! For this is your final resting place!" **Puppet Ganon exclaimed as he decided to chase after Link. However, because he stopped doing that spinning attack, this gave Link the chance to cut the strings with the Boomerang, as all of Puppet Ganon's limbs fell limp. **"What have you done to me?!"**

Now that Puppet Ganon had very limited movement, Link had time to look for the beast's weak spot. He glanced at the orb at the tip of the puppet's tail, and remembering about the Light Arrows' ability to destroy evil, Link quickly took out his Bow and aimed a Light Arrow at the orb and let it loose.

"**AAAAAUUUUUURGH!" **Puppet Ganon roared in pain as his body bounced up once before hitting the floor, appearing to be lifeless at first as Link began celebrating.

Unfortunately, it was too soon for a celebration because Puppet Ganon suddenly began to move and stand up, towering over Link again.

"**It's not over yet, boy!" **Puppet Ganon laughed as his limbs started to sink into the main body, undergoing a new transformation. **"Behold! My next form!" **his torso went all wobbly before it shattered and turned into purple smoke as Puppet Ganon crashed back to the ground. The retracted limbs were now spider legs, and Puppet Ganon's whole body was that of a giant spider. **"I will crush you like a bug!"**

"_Yikes!_" Link thought, slightly taken aback by Puppet Ganon's new form.

Puppet Ganon then shot up into the air by the single string that was connected to his torso and proceeded to spin in the air while chasing Link around. The boy looked at the water's reflection in order to keep track of where Puppet Ganon was, especially focusing on the blue orb. Then, when Puppet Ganon started to plummet down, Link quickly ran out of the way to avoid being squished by the giant spider puppet as it slammed into the floor, splashing water everywhere.

Luckily for Link, he was standing right where the orb was clearly visible, so he wasted no time in firing another Light Arrow at it, ending the second phase of the battle.

"**AAUUUUUUURRRRGH!" **Puppet Ganon roared in pain as he bounced over to the middle of the room. Link watched the spider limbs suddenly flail wildly and curl towards the main body before they exploded into purple smoke. **"Behold my final form!" **

This time, Puppet Ganon took the form of a snake as he started snaking in circles. Link backed away a little to avoid being rammed by the snake, who was now speeding around the room and bouncing off of walls, so taking aim right now would be very difficult. Before Link knew it, the snake suddenly charged towards the hero, giving him no time to react as he was knocked to the floor.

"AGH!"

"**HA HA HA HA HA HA! ****You can never escape me!" **Puppet Ganon laughed.

Groaning, Link slowly got up and drew his bow, watching the snake whizzing towards him but then turned, the impact of the water throwing his aim off as the Light Arrow zipped to the opposite wall instead. Timing the shot was key to this phase, Link knew, and when he saw Puppet Ganon charging towards him again, he was quick to react this time and rolled out of the way in time.

Now it was his chance to strike. Taking precise aim with the bow, Link waited until Puppet Ganon's orb on the tail was just about to reach his aiming point, and when it did, he quickly fires the arrow, successfully hitting the orb.

"**AAAAUUUURRRGH…!" **Puppet Ganon roared in pain again, as its snake body bounced to the middle of the room again. **"No… NO… NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" **he yelled, spinning into the air and exploding entirely into purple smoke, leaving only the red string behind as it was now serving as a rope to climb up.

"***pant* *pant* **I… did it…" Link panted; his energy being sapped from the battle he just had.

But then, he suddenly heard a laugh coming from all the way up at the support beams, belonging to… Ganondorf. And he also had Zelda on his arms. Realization struck Link like a freight train; he hadn't fought the real Ganondorf at all, since _he _was likely the one controlling the puppet the entire time.

"Yes, surely you are the Hero of Time, reborn…" Ganondorf smirked. At this point, Link was too tired to speak anything up. "Your time has come… Come now… Stand before me!" he then slowly levitated into the air, rising higher into the tower until he was gone.

"Ugh… What should I do now…?" Link groaned, still staring up at the spot where Ganondorf used to be standing on. Just then, when he veered his eyes to the right… "Huh?" to his surprise, he saw the six crystals holding his friends captive, and they were slowly floating down towards the floor. And once they touched the ground, the crystals vanished, thus freeing Luka and the Mario cast.

"Mmm…" Yoshi mumbled as he and the others were waking up. "Morning already…?"

"Nnngh… I feel so stiff…" Luigi groaned, trying to keep his balance.

"My head is all fuzzy… How long have we been asleep?" Mario wondered, placing a hand over his head.

"Guys!" Link beamed, having the energy to run over to his friends since he was happy that they were free.

"Oh! Link!" Peach exclaimed as everyone had big smiles on their faces due to being reunited again. "You came to save us!" she gave him a hug.

"Of course I did!" Link replied. "I was so lonely without you guys…"

"Well, then be glad that we're back together!" Toad chirped, making Link smile softly while nodding.

"As happy as I am that we're reunited again, I'm afraid it's too early to celebrate." Luka interfered and glanced at Link. "Right, Link?"

Link immediately went serious. "You're right. Ganondorf has just escaped with Zelda at the top."

The Mario cast gasped. "Ganondorf has Zelda?!" Peach asked.

"He has. And before he left, he sort of requested me to come…" Link pondered, placing a finger under his chin.

"***sigh* **I'm afraid we don't have much of a choice but to follow him as bad as it will turn out." Luka sighed.

"What do you mean by that?" Luigi asked.

"You'll see when we get there…"

"Alright… but how are we going to get up there?" Yoshi asked, looking up.

"Hmm…" Toad mused, looking around the room until his eyes locked onto the dangling red rope that was previously one of Puppet Ganon's strings. "Hey! Maybe we can use that rope over there!" he pointed.

"Good idea, Toad!" Mario exclaimed. "Come on, let's-a go!"

Everyone else nodded and ran over to the rope to begin climbing it. At the very top was a door with light coming from it, so that means it would lead them somewhere outside. It was now or never, and the group wasn't going to leave empty-handed, that's for sure. Taking a deep breath to steel their nerves, the heroes stepped into the light, ready for what lies up ahead.

**To be continued…**

* * *

**I've based off the capturing of the Six Sages from Zelda's capture back from _Ocarina of Time_, where she also gets trapped in a crystal. Even the way the Sages get rescued is similar to Zelda's rescue from the same game!**

**For those who haven't seen my profile, I have changed this particular Saga into a trilogy since I wanted that each story would correspond to each piece of the Triforce, so all other stories I had planned for this Saga before this change will unfortunately not happen. For what each Triforce piece the two stories so far are corresponding to, my Ocarina of Time story represents the Triforce of Power, while this one represents the Triforce of Wisdom. This means that the next and final story will represent the Triforce of Courage, in which some of you might know what Zelda game I'm going to use for that one.**

**Stay tuned for the final chapter! Until then!**


	16. Scattered Seeds

**And here we have the final chapter!**

**Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

**Final Chapter: Scattered Seeds**

When the heroes emerged, they were standing all the way at the top of Ganon's Tower; a circular floor being made out of dark stone with a big swirl in the middle. Some lighter stones swirled around into patterns of curling wind. Up ahead, they saw Ganondorf standing on the far end of the tower near the edge, overlooking the meadows of the sunken Hyrule Field. Zelda also laid next to Ganondorf, unconscious on the floor.

"My country lay within a vast desert." Ganondorf spoke, seeming to notice the group's presence even when not directly facing them. "When the sun rose into the sky, a burning wind punished my lands, searing the world. And when the moon climbed into the dark of night, a frigid gale pierced our homes. No matter when it came, the wind carried the same thing… Death."

The heroes felt their blood run cold by the mention of the word 'death'.

"But the winds that blew across the green fields of Hyrule brought something other than suffering and ruin. I coveted that wind, I suppose. It can only be called fate… That here, I would again gather the three with the crests and the power of the six… That I should lay my hand on that which grants the wishes of the beholder… That when power, wisdom, and courage come together, the gods would have no choice but to come down… The power of the gods… The Triforce! He who touches it will have whatever he desires granted!"

"_Oh no… Is Ganondorf planning to make a wish on the Triforce?!_" the Mario cast thought as their eyes widened a bit, while Luka looked neutral, and Link could only stand there with a confused look on his face.

"Already, the crest of wisdom is mine…" Ganondorf's eyes then moved towards the group. "All that remains…" it was at this moment that Link's crest of courage and the Sages' crests radiated on their hands as they took a quick glance at those, knowing what Ganondorf meant. "…Is the crest and the power that you all bear." Ganondorf finished as he finally turns around to face the group.

"You… You are not taking those from us!" Link growled, pointing his sword at Ganondorf. "As the Hero of Winds, I must not allow you to obtain the Triforce by yourself!"

What he got in response from Ganondorf was nothing more than a wicked grin. He then suddenly lunges towards Link, who rose his shield in front of him in defense, but he wasn't prepared for Ganondorf smacking him in the face… twice. Worse, when the second blow landed, the Master Sword flew out of Link's grasp and planted itself into the ground just a _few_ _inches_ away from Zelda's face. Ganondorf ends it off by punching the poor young hero in the face once more, knocking him out.

"LINK!" Link's friends yelled with looks of horror on their faces. They were about to rush over to Link, only to stop in their tracks as they saw Ganondorf walking slowly over to Link and picking him up by his left wrist.

"Do not fear. I will not kill you or your friends…" Ganondorf said. "I merely have need of the powers that dwell within you and them."

"_No… Is he going to…?_" the Mario cast thought, as they and Luka could do nothing but watch.

"Now! Let us put an end to that which binds us together!"

Eventually, golden lights began to glow from the three bearers of the Triforce pieces' hands. The same thing happens to Luka and the Mario cast's hands, each of their Sage's respective crest glowing with its proper color as they looked at it in awe. The three Triforce pieces then materialized from the golden glows before they shot up into the air, and then the crests of the Six Sages suddenly shot out beams, again, in their proper color, and those beams struck the three pieces, rearranging them into the complete Triforce we all know as it glowed brightly, radiating in a golden light like a sun.

Feeling accomplished on his plan, Ganondorf lets out an evil chuckle as he drops Link onto the floor while walking towards the descending Triforce with a raised hand, ready to reach out to the golden relic and touch it.

"Gods! Hear that which I desire!" he boomed. "Expose this land to the rays of the sun once more! Let them burn forth! GIVE HYRULE TO ME!"

He lowers his hand to touch the Triforce… only to stop because _someone else _has already touched it, much to his shock and disbelief.

"He who touches it will have whatever he desires granted… That is what you said, is it not, Ganondorf?" the one who did it, showing up from absolutely out of nowhere… was King Daphnes.

"Daphnes?!" the Mario cast's eyes widened, while Luka just flashed a smirk.

"Gods of the Triforce!" the King began his wish. "Hear that which I desire! Hope! I desire hope for these children! Give them a future! Wash away this ancient land of Hyrule! Let a ray of hope shine on the future of the world!"

And with that… the Triforce glowed, having heard the King's wish.

"And let our destinies finally be fulfilled…" he added, glaring at Ganondorf. "Ganondorf! May you drown with Hyrule!"

With that, the Triforce pieces were separated from each other as they flew high up into the air and disappearing. At this moment, Ganondorf began to laugh in a way that just screams insanity, since all of his work to finally getting what he wanted was all for nothing. This was the true laugh of a villainous breakdown. As the ocean above began to literally collapse, with large waterfalls ripping through the surface plus a downpour complete with thunderstrikes, Ganondorf's laugh became more and more insane-sounding, which sent chills down Luka and the Mario cast's spines.

"_Not gonna lie… I used to find this laugh funny the first time I heard it…_" Luka thought. "_But now, I kind of regret that._"

"Unngh…" Link groaned, clearly having woken up by Ganondorf's laugh. "What just happened…? Why is it raining?" he wondered, looking around him.

Link's spoken words caught the attention of his friends as they looked back down at him.

"Link! You're awake!" Yoshi chirped.

"Oh, thank god!" Luigi exclaimed in relief.

"Hey, guys…" Link replied, having a small smile upon seeing his friends as he began to stand up, but he ends up clutching his left arm while doing so. "Agh…"

"You okay?" Mario asked.

"Yeah, I'll live…" Link replied, as Ganondorf then stopped laughing and scowled:

"This is foolishness… A future…for you?"

"Heh! What are you laughing at, Ganondorf?! You're insane!" suddenly, Zelda's voice came from behind the heroes as they turned around to see that she was now fully awake and was holding the Master Sword on her hands.

"Zelda?" Link said.

She flashes a wink at him and his friends. "Link! Everyone! I'm sorry! I overslept! I think it's time for us to say good-bye to this place. We must return to the world above! Back to our ocean!"

"Right." Link nodded, taking back the Master Sword from Zelda's hands as both nodded to each other, before doing the same to Luka and the Mario cast, who nodded back. Unfortunately, they couldn't leave now because of one particular obstacle that has been a nuisance to all of them still standing: Ganondorf.

"Very well, then… Allow me to show you…" Ganondorf rose his hands up to his shoulder level, summoning up two swords from out of thin air. "Your future… Yes… Allow me to show you… Just what hope you all have…" he suddenly turns around. "…See how much your precious Triforce is worth!"

Immediately after, Ganondorf lunges after the heroes and slashed at them, but they moved out of the way in time while Zelda began to fish out something from Link's pocket.

"Zelda, what are you…?" Link questioned as he looked back to see her pulling out his Bow and all of his Light Arrows.

"I'll use these to cover you!" Zelda said. "You and your friends attack him as best you can!"

"Understood!" Link nodded and then faced the others. "You heard her, right?"

"We did!" Luka and the Mario cast nodded in response.

"Good!" Link holds his sword and shield aloft with a look of determination. "Let's finish this once and for all!"

"Yeah!" everyone else exclaimed as they were all ready for the final battle against Ganondorf.

"Hah! The only future you have is at the end of my blade!" he smirked, as the final battle has begun.

As Zelda went on her separate way from the others, Ganondorf leaps up into the air to try and slash down at them, but Link blocked the attack and did a parry attack, only for Ganondorf to block it with one of his swords and then he was struck in the back by Yoshi and Toad, who tossed an egg and a turnip respectively. Scowling, Ganondorf turned around and charged at the two, only for Mario to stomp on his head and then landed on the ground and did an uppercut to send him into the air, where Luigi jumped up and swung his hammer at him to knock him away.

Ganondorf quickly recovered once he landed on the floor, but before he could act, Peach fired a light beam at him to keep him in place, giving Zelda an opportunity to shoot a Light Arrow at him. The Arrow struck Ganondorf, causing him to get stunned and then Link quickly ran up to him and slashed him repeatedly until Ganondorf recovered and blocked the last strike the young hero did before kicking him away.

"Gah!" Link yelled.

"Link! Don't get too reckless!" Zelda warned.

"I'll try…!" Link groaned as he got up, watching Luka tossing fireballs at Ganondorf to keep him busy as he tried to slash at the others, and then Yoshi jumped up and whacked Ganondorf in the face with his tail, followed by Peach firing another light beam and it finished with Zelda firing another Light Arrow at him.

"Alright…" Ganondorf muttered, glancing at Zelda. "Enough of your insolence!" he lunged directly at her and smacked her away, much to the others' shock.

"Oh no!" Link exclaimed before growling at Ganondorf and rushing up to him to slash at him, only for him to block it as the blades of two swords collided with each other.

"Your life is meaningless! You are worthless!" Ganondorf scowled as he and Link struggled to push the other one back.

"No… I... am... NOT!" Link shot back as he struggled the best he could, but due to his small size, Ganondorf was winning.

"I'll give him a helping hand!" Luka exclaimed and shot lava near Ganondorf's feet. The heat of the lava got to him, making him lose concentration as Link slashed him away, but since this slash wasn't very strong, the King of Darkness merely lands on his feet.

"A mere child can never hope to defeat me!" he scolded and attempted to slash down at Link, but he leapt up and landed a parry attack as it struck Ganondorf successfully this time and then proceeded to slash him repeatedly again.

"Ugh…" Zelda groaned as she regained consciousness and quickly stood up.

"Zelda, you're up!" Peach exclaimed before she and the rest glanced at the fight between Link and Ganondorf. "What should we do next?"

"…I have a new plan." Zelda replied. "Follow my orders!" the others immediately nodded back as Zelda calls out to Link, "Link!"

"What is it?!" Link answered as he blocked a blow from Ganondorf.

"Change of plans! You have to distract him!" Zelda instructed. "Are you ready?! I'll aim for you! And you use your shield… Do you get it?"

Link knew exactly what Zelda was planning now. "I got it!" he nodded and then glanced at his friends. "Help me out with the distraction, guys!"

"Right on, Link!" they nodded in response, all of them feeling determined and ready to finish this.

"Hyrule is already dead! May you all drown with it!" Ganondorf declared angrily as he tried to slash at Link and his friends, but they kept dodging.

"Nah, it is only YOU who'll drown with it!" Toad declared and at this moment, Luka and the Mario cast proceeded to throw their projectile attacks at Ganondorf all at once for the distraction as Zelda aligns herself to the opposite side of Link's position.

"Here it comes, Link! Get your shield ready!" Zelda warned as she aims the Light Arrow at Link's direction.

In response, Link put his shield in front of him as Zelda fired the arrow, where it was reflected right at Ganondorf, stunning him as Link's friends stopped throwing their projectiles.

"NOW, LINK! FINISH HIM OFF!" Zelda, Luka and the Mario cast shouted in unison.

Encouraged by his friends' words, Link watched Ganondorf angrily swing one of swords down… and it was at this moment that the hero did a 180 roll, slashed behind, leapt up into the air while doing a 360 flip, and with a loud war cry… he plants the Master Sword RIGHT into Ganondorf's forehead as the King of Evil screamed at the top of his lungs in immense pain.

When the Master Sword's blade fully fixed itself into Ganondorf's skull, Link panted heavily as he took a moment to realize the deed he had done, but he didn't move off of the man's body.

"Ughnn… Heh heh…" Ganondorf chuckled, smiling as he looked up at the water blocked sky that was still collapsing. "The wind… It is blowing…"

Just then, Ganondorf's body started to tremble as Link quickly hopped off, and then he and the others watched as Ganondorf suddenly turns into stone. The Mario cast was left in shock with that happening since the last time Ganondorf was defeated, he was merely just sealed away, but this time, he was pretty much dead at this point.

"Well, he's gone for good." Luka said.

"Whoa… I did not see _this _coming." Toad remarked.

"Same to all of us, Toad." Mario threw in.

"Pheeew… It's finally over…" Luigi sighed.

"Yeah…" Peach nodded.

"I feel so tired…" Yoshi breathed.

Link was also feeling tired, as once he glanced at the petrified Ganondorf while slightly frowning, he let out a sigh as he slowly tumbled to the side.

"Link!" Zelda yelled, quickly rushing up to Link to support him as Luka and the Mario cast followed afterwards.

"My children… Listen to me." King Daphnes suddenly shows up in front of the group as they all looked up to him to hear what he has to say as he began to speak in a melancholic tone. "I have lived regretting the past. And I have faced those regrets. If only I could do things over again… Not a day of my life has gone by without my thoughts turning to my kingdom of old. I have lived bound to Hyrule." he turned to the statue of Ganondorf and continued, "In that sense, I was the same as Ganondorf.

"But you…" he faced the group again. "I want you to live for the future. There may be nothing left for you… But despite that, you must look forward and walk a path of hope, trusting that it will sustain you when darkness comes. As fate writes its final chapter, this land can finally be put to rest… As well as the past, that has strained me to this flooded kingdom. This is the end of Hyrule…"

Everyone couldn't help but frown sadly at the King's words. It was clear that he cared so much about his kingdom, but when a catastrophe struck it without having a hero to save it, there was no other choice but to leave its fate to the hands of the gods. But even with the kingdom of Hyrule long gone, the King could see a bright future waiting to arrive, and he wanted the new descendants of the hero and the princess to live on with it. After all, living in the past is not the best thing in the world.

"Farewell…" King Daphnes solemnly said, crestfallen. "This is the only world that your ancestors were able to leave you. Please…forgive us."

Zelda sadly bowed her head in shame, until an idea suddenly sparked in her mind as she rose her head back up with a smile. "W-Wait! You could… You could come with us!" she beamed as Link glanced at her in confusion. "Yes, of course… We have a ship! We can find it. We WILL find it! The land that will be the next Hyrule!" as she said that, Link's eyes perked up in realization. Zelda then looks back at the King with a pleading look. "So…"

King Daphnes was silent, and everyone could tell that he had a somewhat saddened look, which then turns into a sad smile as he replies, "Ah, but child… That land will not be Hyrule. It will be YOUR land!"

Suddenly, a loud waterfall-like sound came from above as the mighty waters of the ocean finally gave in on the rest of Hyrule. Everyone had their eyes covered, but somehow weren't breathless or even wet. It was only after they opened their eyes to see why: they were encased in what appears to be air bubbles shaped like themselves, much to their surprise.

Then, they slowly began floating up towards the surface, as the King could do nothing but watch them rise. He watched as Link even tried to reach out for him as if he was begging him to come along despite him not willing to, considering that he reached up his hand towards the young hero a few centimeters away, but in the end, he pulled it back as Link, saddened, kept looking down at him as he disappears into the raging waters below.

"I have scattered the seeds of the future…"

* * *

The sounds of gentle waves greeted the ears of Link, Zelda, now back as Tetra, Luka and the Mario cast, who were all floating on the surface of the water. They all slowly opened their eyes, but squinted a bit due to the bright early morning sun's rays shining on their faces. Then, they heard flapping noises and looked up in surprise to see Prince Komali smiling down at them while hovering above the water.

"Guys! You're all okay! Thank goodness!" he exclaimed.

"MISS TETRA!" before the group could say anything, they suddenly heard a shout from behind them as they turned around to see Tetra's pirate ship with her crew on board.

The group looked completely speechless as they watched and heard the pirates waving and cheering at them, grateful for their safe return. But it wasn't just Tetra's crew who was on board; on the mast was Aryll waving happily, and somewhere else on the ship's deck were Medli and Makar, who had come back from their temples as they were done fulfilling their task since Ganondorf was no more.

Link was already smiling ever since he noticed his sister and waved back, and it only took a few seconds for Tetra, Luka and the Mario cast to just roll with it and wave as well. Somewhere nearby on the open ocean, Lana was standing on a small island, watching the reunion unfold.

"You did it, guys... You saved this era." she smiled.

* * *

_**Later…**_

Everyone was now standing on Outset Island, and it was time for Luka and the Mario cast to leave.

"Once again, we're in for a very hard farewell…" Peach frowned.

"Yeah…" Luigi added. "It feels bad, even if we went through that already once before."

"Might not be the second time for me, but I highly understand your situation." Link said before sighing, "I'm going to miss you guys… You were such a big help for me throughout this entire adventure…"

"We'll miss you too, Link." Mario replied.

"But hey, at least we had fun, right?" Yoshi asked with a smile.

"It sure was!" Luka threw in. "I just cannot express how exciting it was for me to experience what's like to be in the world of my favorite game!"

"I just can't wait to show my Brigade those treasures we gathered in our journey!" Toad exclaimed as he held out the Spoils Bag that held one of every treasure the game had as everyone looked at him in surprise.

"Wait, you had the Spoils Bag with you this entire time?!" Link asked.

"Yep! Tetra won't mind if I take it to our world, right?" he glanced at Tetra.

"Of course I won't." Tetra replied with a smile. "It's all yours."

"All right! Thanks!"

"So, are you all ready to go?" Lana asked as Luka and the Mario cast nodded in response. "Good. I'll proceed to open the Gate of Souls for you." she starts working on her magic as the group decided to exchange one last farewell to Link with a group hug.

"I really hope I can see you guys again another time." Link smiled.

"Who knows? We might someday." Mario said before they broke from the hug.

"You guys!" Aryll ran up to them. "Thank you so much for looking after my big brother!"

"You're welcome, Aryll." Peach replied.

"Hee hee hee!" Aryll giggled in response before waving, "Take care!"

"I totally owe you guys for your help." Tetra spoke up before doing a casual wave. "See you then!"

Luka and the Mario cast nodded in response, and at this moment, the Gate of Souls was ready.

"It's ready, guys! Head in before it disappears!" Lana said as she went in first.

"Goodbye!" Luka and the Mario cast waved before going into the gate as it vanished.

"Well, they're back to their world." Tetra said and then turned to Link. "Ready to depart, Link?"

Link immediately nodded in response. "Ready."

* * *

We then cut to the pirate ship facing away from Outset Island with the sails already unfolded, with Tetra, her pirate crew, and Link on board, while on the island's shore stood all of the residents to watch the departure, with both Aryll and Link's Grandma looking saddened. As a gust of wind blows on the ship's sail, Tetra began her orders:

"Anchors aweigh! Hold the tiller steady!" she then looks at the horizon with a smile and her arms crossed. "As for our destination… The wind will guide us!" With that, the ship began to sail away from the island as its residents waved goodbye.

"Tetra! Big Brother!" Aryll called out as she went to the pier. Link and Tetra turned around to see Aryll waving sadly at them and they could ever swear they saw her sheading a few tears. "G-Good luck!"

Link and Tetra smiled back at her and waved back before glancing back at the never-ending ocean ahead of them. The ancient realm of Hyrule was now destroyed, but the wind shall guide forth the new bearers of Wisdom and Courage to a new land, where the kingdom would set off down another path…

**The End**

* * *

**Epilogue**

As for what happened to the group who just returned to the Mushroom Kingdom? Well, Luka went back to her home in Hateno Village in order to play some more Zelda games, Toad went to his Brigade to show them the treasures from the Spoils Bag, Lana left to somewhere unknown, and Mario, Luigi, Peach and Yoshi headed for Peach's Castle, where they found, surprisingly, Daisy and Rosalina standing there.

"Daisy? Rosie? I didn't expect you to be here!" Peach exclaimed.

"Yo, guys!" Daisy greeted. "Let me guess, you went in on another adventure?"

"We sure did." Luigi replied.

"Figured as much. Anyways, Rosie over here decided to pay a visit to the Mushroom Kingdom!" she directed to Rosalina who waved at them.

"Normally I would only come to visit once every hundred years as you all know, but I decided to make an exception." Rosalina said. "Besides, I'm pretty interested to know about the recent adventure you just had."

"Well, here we go again." Mario playfully shrugged.

"Hey, it will be fun explaining everything!" Yoshi chirped as everyone else chuckled before they all headed to the castle.

Little did they know, that after just a few days, a new adventure in a new Hyrule would unfold… Along with the return of an old friend and an old villain…

* * *

**It's hard to believe that I just started this story last year in June and finished only today... Time sure flies! ****Anyways, that concludes the story that's representing the Triforce of Wisdom for the trilogy! Hopefully you enjoyed this story!**

**Next, for the story that serves as the final Triforce piece, the Triforce of Courage... Those who have been following me since I was working on the Galaxy Heroes Saga (and when my writing was still so-so in my opinion...) might remember that I started writing a particular Zelda story but stopped midway since I was lost at what to do. However, that story will be rewritten and completely remastered for this Saga to make a perfect ending to it!**

**I hope you'll be looking forward to it! Fairy out! ;D**


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